She Bears A Triforce
by IvoryCoral
Summary: FINALLY UPDATED! MF LinkOC Pathetic Iknow. This is also on Time has passed, things have changed for our Hero. A girl wakes up in Hyrule and wanders about. She has a mark on her hand, interesting... Love all reveiws BRING IT!
1. 1 Not one or the other

The wind played around with the scruffy golden strands of hair, as if trying to see how many directions they could be drawn before their owner swept them back again. Dawn had come well over three hours ago, but the young man didn't mind, there was no point in rushing these days, or almost no point. Maybe there was need of it when there was hunting to do, or herbs to find, or something else of the sort, but beyond that, no. Shockingly deep blue eyes reflected the clear skies and rolling openness that was Hyrule Field. The wind in the long grass giving the impression of an emerald brushfire, still made him breathe deeply and sigh heavily. An impatient snort from his mount brought the young blonde back to reality, thankfully. He glanced down slightly and the very smallest of smiles touched his warm lips. A strong, but gentle hand patted the red mare on her neck and white mane.

"I know girl," he said soothingly, and smirked a bit when he felt her long tail swat against the back of his thigh. "I know." Nudging her carefully in the sides with his heels, they started off at a brisk trot. The young man didn't want to overwork his best friend, especially when there was no need. After all, all that galloping for a night and a day like people did in stories, and like he had done, was hard on both rider and horse. He sympathized with her a good deal. Loyalty could have a high price, but they kept that with each other. He let his mind wander on that…

The wind danced and caressed its way past the long wild grasses of Hyrule Field, but paused at a point where the foliage was flattened in the shape of a person. She lay there quite still, except for the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed and her heart beat steadily. The uninhibited sunlight warmed her fair skin, casting a healthy pink into her cheeks and hands a bit. Nearly everything else on her was covered and she would soon have to get up because of the increasing cramp in her shoulder muscles. This was caused by the odd position she had been sleeping in for the past six or seven hours. Her arm were still looped through the straps of the pack on her back and based on they way her limbs stretched out, she looked as though she had not gone to sleep willingly; not that anyone but passing birds could see her, and they were smart enough to know that she was not dead. Presently she stirred, and made an attempt to sit up. But quickly relented again, her whole body was far too stiff to move much. Her long brownish-gold hair fanned out against the green flames of the field, helped along by the wind, and her eyes opened to reveal the color of fresh young leave; not that anyone was around to see this. But she was thoroughly sick of just lying there like a corpse and decided to try heaving herself up again, this time with greater success. She stood none too balanced from her loose-hanging hair to her white tank-tope and denim jacket down her blue-jeans and right to her feet in their wearing tennis shoes; but still upright and shifted the pack on her back, looking about. The wide open spans f land yielded little to the imagination, except to make her wonder how in the hell she had gotten there in the first place, and what she was supposed to do now. Far to her right, it looked like there was a hill of stone and several towers, and it was likely to be her best bet for civilization, or even just shelter. So what could she do? She started walking, and kept walking, falling into an easy yet persistent pace. Only once did she halt to take out a bottle of water from her backpack, so she would not be in danger of dehydration. And all the while she could swear she heard horse-hooves somewhere nearby though still distant enough to make her question whether or not they were real.

The young man on horseback wasn't sure what he was seeing. He had slowed the mare to a walk and was peering out over the grasslands, squinting a bit to see. And now that the figure was standing again, he was sure it was a person. It was still difficult to determine gender since they were so far off.

_ Why not get a closer look?_ He reasoned and directed the horse that way. What he saw as he got closer startled him. The person was clearly a woman, but what a woman. He had never seen such odd clothe on anyone male or female before. Not to mention he'd bet the sack on her back could hold far more than his money pouches and saddlebags combined. But even with all this newness, he noticed right away the long waves of brown and deep gold, and the fact that there were no long pointed ears showing from them. This girl, or woman rather, could not be a hylian, and the only other real option was that she must be one of the other races. Trying his best to keep his mount quiet, he walked her closer. It was obvious that she was not a zora or a goron since those two looked the least hylian of all the races, and since she was tall enough to be considered an adult, it was none to likely that she was Kokiri. So what else was left? She had to be Gerudo. He therefore proceeded carefully. One all on her own could be handled much easier than if she called her sisters; plus she seemed worn out to him, judging by the way she was walking. All the better, he might even come out to this unscathed. When the young man felt he was at a safe distance, he called out to her. "Hey!" She started and then turned slowly. He was shocked at what met his brilliant blue eyes. The face was pale, fairer than his own, and the eyes were greener than the grass all around them, soft pink lips. The details went on, but it really didn't matter. She was certainly not what he had expected. All Gerudos had red hair that stood out like so much fire, darker skin, which sometimes held a greenish-gray hue, longer noses and were skill warriors who only left their fortress in Gerudo Valley to snatch whatever they could. She couldn't be one of them could she? He couldn't even see any kind of weapon on her. The young man sat there staring at her, and waiting as she stared back. He wondered if she could call anyone for help, but she made no move to do anything. She just stood there staring like a startled doe.

The young woman blinked once or twice but otherwise stayed quite still. She didn't know who this man was, but she had a pretty good idea who he looked like. But that was insane, absurd, impossible, even if he was right there a good four yards to her right. Her posture stiffened further as he encouraged the horse to walk slowly up to her. With tension in her body and on her face, she took a defensive step back, then another. Whoever he was, he got the point and stopped his advance. Even when he dismounted and took a step forward, she took another back. So he paused, then to her utter surprise, he held out his hand in a greeting. "Are you lost?" he asked very calmly and rationally, the way one tries to do with a terrorist that might snap at any second.

"Um, not really." She stumbled for words. "I'm heading that way." She pointed in the direction of the town with its towers, turrets and pale gray stonewalls. The young man, or elf or whatever he was, came a bit closer by maybe five paces.

"Would you like a ride?" he could tell he had startled her with this question, though he didn't know why it had that effect on her. The strange woman's expression turned arch and suspicious, he knew the look all too well.

"I'll walk, thanks though." At least she was halfway courteous. The more he observed about her, the more he learned. The young man was just wondering if this indicated some kind of upper class upbringing, when she turned away from him and started walking again.

"You sure?" his voice bordering on concern startled her for a second time that day. Why was he being persistent? Most people, or maybe just guys, would go on their own way and not think twice about her. The fact that this total stranger seemed to give a damn was unnerving to her because it was the last thing she expected.

"Yes, thanks, I'm fine." She said more edgily than she had intended. "Besides, it's not like something dead is going to leap up and take a limb off." She added more gently. But when she looked up she noticed that not only was he sitting on his horse again, he was giving her an exceptionally skeptical look. Neither one said another word, but they still walked beside each other. Both kept sneaking glances at the other and hoping not to be caught.

Some time around noon, or maybe a little after, they reached the draw bride into fortified market of Hyrule Castle. Directing his mare carefully, the young man joined the throng of people going in, and the woman followed at his side.

_ And how things have changed._ He marveled to himself more poetically than usual. Now that there was no more threat of Ganondorf, or anything else really, the people of the Market Town had grown far more relaxed and comfortable, if a tad foolish. They came and went at leisure nowadays but there was always the story of some random thief or something of the sort for those who weren't more careful. As far as the young man was concerned, he had nothing to worry about, but he felt that others should be more wary. Having survived worse than a mere robbery, he felt he could handle himself. He heaved a tired sigh. It was sort of funny, but when the world didn't need saving, and the one he most wanted to save was long since beyond his reach, the world seemed a deadly dull place. Now it was just a matter of getting through the days that seemed to bleed one into the next. His thoughts paused as he looked around absently. There was the strange woman walking next to him, but it was difficult to see any real details because her hair was so long and because she now had a white scarf or something keeping her tresses in check, and was looking the other way anyway.

"Hey Link." Said someone, drawing the young man's attention away from the girl. He waved in reply to the guard who had greeted him, and smiled a bit. Since the Late Princess had known him quite well and they were good friends, this naturally meant that those around her would have known him too. But they still had no idea of what he had accomplished all those years ago, nine years going on ten, it seemed so much less than that sometimes. Link, for that was his name, had the theory that he was going insane, but he no longer really cared, as long as no one else was ever hurt by it. After his time being a ten-year-old in the body of a teenager, then going into another world, Termina if he recalled correctly, it felt difficult t distinguish between memories of when he was actually 17 rather than ten in his adult body. Or maybe he was just nutty as a fruitcake he didn't really know or care. Somebody, one of the guards he correctly assumed, wolf-whistled as the girl he'd met earlier passed him by. She seemed not to notice and kept walking her form held straight and tall, unlike plenty of women these days. Link would have wondered if there was noble blood in her, if not for the oddest of odd clothes she was wearing. Link checked himself and forced his gaze to focus in between his horse's ears again. He had caught himself eyeing her figure a little too closely.

_ Wait, why do I care? It's not like she even really knows me._ He reasoned with himself, letting his gaze drift back to her form. _Besides, she's not even looking._ But there, it happens he was slightly mistaken. Link continued to keep his sapphire gaze on her until she turned a corner and was lost from his sight. _Oh well, such is life: win some, lose some._ He lamented finally dismounted from his mare, and leading her to the stables near the Inn. But his mind lingered on her for another minute, and he wondered why she grasped his curiosity so much. And he vaguely hoped she knew how to handle herself when all alone in a crowded marketplace. Deciding that it was best not to worry about her, he shrugged it off and continued on his way. "Good girl Epona." He said patting the mare affectionately and picking a carrot for her to nibble. Epona nuzzled his face in a motherly fashion before catching the carrot with her teeth and pulling the whole thing out of his hand. Link laughed a bit and patted her again. "Ill see you later." He told her and walked off. He really had nothing to do in the market today; he could always do it tomorrow. So what was there to do? Walk around and see what was going on, if anything. As always, merchants called out to him, and everyone else, from their dingy cloth tents or musty-looking front doors all but ordering him to buy their goods. It was a little irritating but what could one do? It was just the way things were. He did however wave to a few of the weapons dealers he knew and they waved back. The sword and shield on his back never seemed to go unnoticed, by anyone, ever. Old habits die hard. Link just kept walking; it was sort of nice to become lost in the everyday babble once in a while. Eventually he found himself in front of the Inn doors again, the sun sinking low in the sky, and he entered feeling like this place was becoming too familiar, and for the wrong reasons. The young man's presence did not go unnoticed, as he would have liked at this point. There was the usual number of drunks, social drinkers and one more whore than usual, and someone new behind the bar too. Link took what had become his typical seat at the end of the bar farthest from the door. He waved to the bartender who came over and ask how he was. Link however was not in a social mood, sure he'd laugh a bit and even smile, but that wasn't the same as a need for companionship. He got straight to the point. "I need a room for the night and some kind of dinner. What's good tonight?"

"Sazonia!" the bartender called over his shoulder and a pale face with deep goldish-brown hair and green eyes came into view.

Link would have fallen off his stool if he hadn't caught the edge of the bar quickly enough, but he was lucky. _By the goddesses, so this is where she's been!_ He could have been knocked over with a feather at the realization.

"What's cooking in there?" the bartender's words brought him back to reality for the moment.

"Well, the stew is ready, I'm still working on the roast and the potatoes are nearly done. So, what would you like Sir?" she added to the blond man at the end of the bar. If she recognized him, she showed no sign of it.

"I'll take the stew, and maybe some potatoes." He said, still rather floored form it all. _Sazonia_ he thought. _Wonder where she got a name like that?_

"Are there any mushrooms back there woman?" the bartender said gruffly and was almost immediately smacked in the face with a damp washcloth. Link grinned, and made a mental note not to call her that in future, unless he wanted his reflexes tested.

"There are for those with manners." She snapped as she carefully carried a large bowl of the hot stew and set it before the young man. "Would you like anything else Sir?" She asked, the epitome of politeness.

"Are there any mushrooms?" he asked, stirring the soup with his spoon.

"Sure, would you like them fried, sautéed or raw?"

"Sautéed please."

"Okay, I'll be back soon." She turned and walked back to the kitchens. Link was scrutinizing the contents of his soup bowl carefully before scooping some up. He blew on it to knock off the steam and tried it. Link felt better from the first bite. The liquid was creamy and slightly rich without being too much so, the vegetables were cooked properly firm rather than absolute mush, and the bits of meat he caught with his teeth were tender and came apart easily. The whole soup was just spicy enough for not too spicy and made him feel as though he were slowly soaking into a tub of warm butter.

"Mushrooms!" called the young woman's voice, snapping him out of his daze just long enough for him to take another bite of the stew. The bartender chuckled as he set down a plate of freshly sautéed mushrooms next to his blonde customer.

"Good stuff isn't it?" he asked knowingly, and Link nodded. "She jus' showed up outta nowhere, askin' if there was any work she could do for a place to sleep and a few rupees." The balding bartender grinned again as some of the other male customers pointed in the direction of the kitchens, laughing and daring each other to do this or that. "Real pretty too, she'll be good for business." She chuckled again winking. Link didn't like the implications of that last statement, and he knew perfectly well why. Most of the loose women around here were that by choice, but there was the occasional case where one would be forced into it. And hero though he was, there was little he could do to help in that kind of situation. Hell and hell, life wasn't fair, and barely just wasn't enough anymore. Funny how barely could mean you survived in the end of some great battle, but it could not get you out of just a generally bad situation like that. The sense of guilt that had abated due to the soup seemed to have sunk back in leaving a lead weight in his chest, and a question in his mind.

_ I saved the land from being flattened, but did I really save anyone from a worse life?_ It was the sort of question that never really has a positive answer, and when it does, you go crazy figuring it out so it no longer matters. Thankfully he had little time to dwell on these depression notions. The bartender had called everyone's attention to the very back where a piano was set up.

"We've got some entertainment tonight. Our very own singing chef Sazonia." Somebody sat down at the piano and started a slow, drugged sort of melody. And there she was, sitting sidesaddle on one end of the piano looking ungodly innocent, a joke no doubt.

"Sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong. But he doesn't care, he'll string along. He loves me so, that funny honey of mine." She had a lovely voice and although it sounded a bit nasal anyone listening could tell that was how the song should be sung. "Sometimes I'm down, sometimes I'm up. But he follows 'round like some droopy-eyed pup. He loves me so, that funny honey of mine." Link was listening, but not raptly. It was nice having something calming his nerves for now and enjoying a decent meal. But her next words almost made him choke. "He ain' no sheik, that's no great physique, an' lord knows he ain' got the smarts. But look at that soul, I tell you that whole is a whole lot greater than the sum of his parts." The music had seemed more sensual in nature but just then it took a slightly innocent little turn. "And if you knew him like me, I know you'd agree." But it slid back to that same melody again fascinating in both its sensuality and lack there of at the same time. "What if the world, slandered my name? Why he'd be right there, taking the blame. He loves me so, an' it all suits me fine, that funny sunny honey hubby of mine." There was a slight overture in which she teased a lock of her pretty hair and smiled in a manner to make the harlots blush a bit. Though most of the men doubted it was from the suggestions they'd blush for. "He loves me so, that funny honey of mine." Again came that smooth velvety voice. And Link thought that her voice had the same effect as her soup, making one feel like they were soaking in warm butter. Again the music all on its own, but then she started up again, gruffer this time. "Lord knows he ain' got the smarts." A few of the patrons whooped and clapped and one even whistled during the next few notes. "Now he shot off his trap, I can't stand that sap!" It almost sounded like she was angry, but the smile on her face gave her away, she was enjoying this little performance. "Look at him go, rattin' on me, with just one more brain what a half-wit he'd be!" She slid gracefully from the piano and cocked her head to the side, striking a pose. "If they string me up, well I'll know who brought the twine!" And here came the finale, making at least all the men smile if not laugh at the turn in the song. "That scummy crummy DUMMY hubby of mine!" And that was it. The pianist played another short round and she took a very short bow. A few of the patrons tossed rupees to her. "Thank you. Thank you, you're most kind. In fact you're every kind." She joked and a roar of laughter went up. "But I gotta get back to the kitchen before I'm sat upon by the dinner rush." And she bowed again, retrieving the few rupees, and waved a farewell amid another bout of laughter. A set of impossibly blue eyes trailed after her as she retreated back to her working area. Link shook his head and ordered a beer. He knew he shouldn't look at her like that, it was disrespectful to the princess's memory, and he could feel guilt pecking at him like a starved raven.

Some time after dinner had been finished, and the swell of customers had ebbed, Link still sat at his stool, his eyes focused on a knothole in the smooth surface of the wooden bar. There was a persistent throbbing behind his left eye, which seemed to correspond directly with the way the fire popped and crackled. He knew it wasn't the booze, two drinks wasn't enough to split his skull like this. No, this was born of something deeper than the mere consumption of alcohol. They young man heaved a sigh that no one in the nearly empty bar could hear. He would have liked to go to bed and be unconscious for the next eight hours, but his mind refused to be at peace, even for such a short period of time. The bartender was shooing the last few stragglers out so he could close up for the night.

"You paid for a room right?" he asked the young blond, who nodded silently. The bartender walked past the entrance to the kitchen and to the wall exactly opposite the door, where the keys were kept. He picked the last one, walked back and handed it to Link. "Room 3 is open. Have a good night Sir." Link nodded and heaved himself up with an inaudible groan. The creaky stairs up to the landing seemed that much louder to his already sensitive ears, but he bit his tongue; there was no point in complaining about what couldn't be changed. Which was another way of saying no one would give a damn unless the whole structure collapsed. When he reached his door he leaned his head against the cool wood for a moment, willing the pulsating pain to just go away, or failing that lessen. Another sigh, and the scrape of the key in the lock. The door swung open effortlessly, and the young man's jaw just about hit the floor. Right there in the middle of the small room, standing on her hands and feet with her body arched towards the ceiling, was Sazonia. And judging by the expression on her face, she had acknowledged his presence. That and the thud as her body gave up supporting her.

Link took one step inside and she sat up and was halfway to her feet when they both spoke. "What are you -?" They both stopped.

"You first." Link said, leaning against the doorframe and putting two fingers to his temple, which had chosen that moment to beat horribly again.

"What the hell are you doing in my room?" her voice was far more commanding than he had originally remembered.

"My room, you mean." He corrected coolly. She looked about ready to pop him one, when the barkeep in question tried, and failed, to walk silently past the two.

"Hey!" She pushed past the blond and snagged the bartender by the shoulder. "You wanna tell me what's going on?" For a moment he tried to look innocently puzzled, but when he saw that both young adults weren't going for it, he just shrugged.

"Time is rupees sweet-cheeks." He laughed a bit. "He paid for a room and it's more than you can really afford."

"And just what am I supposed to do?" she spat. Her hands were on her hips, she was ready for combat.

"Well you could always sleep in the stables." And with that he walked away laughing raucously. The young man half expected her to spontaneously combust on the spot. But she just punched the wall and pushed past him back into the room again. He would have asked what she was doing now, but it was obvious as she picked up her pack that had been sitting in one corner. One of her arms was already through the strap before his arm blocked her way out.

"Do you mind?" she grumbled, gripping him around the wrist to try and move him. Link wouldn't budge so much as an inch.

"You're not sleeping out there." The utter calm in his voice should have warned her that he meant no game in this. But she was irate and impatient, and at this point, damn sick of people.

"Says you." She bit out and proceeded to walk under his arm. But she had not counted on Link being as fast as he was. Before she quite knew what was going on, his arms had come around her middle like a boa-constrictor and the next thing she knew there was something hard in her stomach. When she figured out that she was looking at the floor, and that was his boot kicking the door shut, she guessed she was over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Put me down!" she ordered, letting her fists smack none to gently into his back, which only achieved a metal clank and a few curses from her in response.

"It's not safe out there." Link told her in the same calm demeanor as before. Sazonia was about to protest, so he shifted her on his shoulder again, standing in the middle of the room. "Promise you won't go out there." It sounded more like an order than a request to her.

"For the last time, PUT ME DOWN!" So naturally he dumped her none too gracefully on the bed. She bounced once then sat up and gave a furious growl. "Look you-!"

"Shut up." Now his tone was clipped and stinging, and for once she did the smart thing and was silent. She waited for him to say something more, but he just turned, walked over to the closed door, and locked it. He removed his shield and sword setting them up against the wall, and sat down with his back up against the door.

The female on the bed was growing more agitated by the second, and finally, the tension got to her. "Look putzo, I'm not sleeping in the same room with you! And if you think-!"

"Do you even know what's out there?" His question startled her.

"A stable and a few horses?" she suggested wryly.

"Worse than that." He said simply, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Like I care." She fired back. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly Miss Prim-And-Proper."

"You think?" He replied, and actually smiled a bit at his own wit, or maybe the flushed and furious color of her cheeks.

Just when she seemed ready to erupt again, she heaved an exasperated sigh. "So why do you care what happens to me?" she could find nothing else to say, so there it was.

Link couldn't give her a real answer since he didn't know himself. However, "Why not?" It seemed as logical a response as any other words they'd exchanged up until now. Sazonia mad a frustrated noise again and shook her head, the long tresses waving. He remembered something that he had been wondering about all day. "May I ask you something?"

"Don't ask me if I'm a Gerudo." She said and one of his eyebrows arched. "I've been getting that one all day, it's driving me absolutely bonkers." Link didn't know for sure what she meant by the word "bonkers" but he thought he could guess. When she finally broke the silence again, it was to correctly interpret his silence. "No I'm not a Gerudo, dummy."

"You just look like one isall." He remarked coolly, though there may have been a hint of curiosity in there too.

"So what? You look like one of Tolkien's wood elves, that doesn't mean you are one." She remarked.

"I'm a Hylian, that's all." He stated and was surprised when she rolled her vivid green eyes.

"Yeah, and I'm the King of France." She retorted. Before Link could even ask what or where France was, she went on. "Look, I'll stay put for the night, but he second you try anything you're a dead man got it?"

"Tch, as if I would." He said bitterly, but that seemed enough for her. She lay down and burrowed under the covers. But her sharply green eyes didn't close; they stayed fixated on him in a hard glare. So naturally, he glared right back. After that it seemed to become a contest between who could keep awake the longest. And in the end, neither of them would ever know who won.


	2. 2 Morning After

The sky grew gray at first, then paler, turning up its blue edges. Slowly the warm flush of red and pink brushed their way across the sky and gentle orange and gold linked and melding together. The sun peaked just barely over the borders of the eastern world. Birds twittered ad twinkled their music reminding all that it was daylight and to rise from the warm cocoon of their beds soon. The whole early morning was absolutely picturesque and peaceful.

But it was ended all too succinctly with a shriek that could have woken the dead for about a mile around, and the accompanying SMACK-THUD! And Link found himself practically kissing the hardwood floor in Room 3 of the Inn. It was one thing to wake up curled up in a warm bed with a warm feminine body next to you; it was another to wake up in the same setting only to have your ear nearly taken off about 0.2153 seconds later.

For this was what happened: Link had gained consciousness and was just remembering why he was in bed in the first place, especially after the events of the previous night. Just as his eyes tried to shift open and accustom themselves to the early light, that warm gentle body beside him shifted. Sazonia had reacted quicker than one would've thought anyone capable at such an hour. She let out a scream that nearly made his ears bleed just before smacking him upside the head. And this, of course, caused him to lose his balance as he sat up and fall face-first out of the narrow bed. The young woman was still sitting straight up on the aforementioned furniture, her hand stinging from the impact but still poised ready to strike a second time.

"What the hell was THAT for?" Link said loudly, pushing himself into a sitting position and nursing the wounded side of his face.

"Do I wanna KNOW why I woke up next to you?" she shouted, about ready to knock him senseless again.

"Because you were asleep next to me." He said snidely.

"Quit trying to be a smart-ass! Why the hell were you sleeping next to me?" She bellowed, earning a reproving thump on the adjacent wall.

"I was cold and sore." He stated coolly.

"Well dammit man, would it have killed you to get a blanket and pillow and sleep on the floor just this once?"

"It might have."

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "You are so full of shit." She muttered irritably. She then flopped back down and put one hand to her head, rubbing her temples. And she was clearly heard to say, "What a way to wake up."

"Try having your face smacked off first thing in the morning." Link grumbled as he got to his feet and tried to stretch. There were a few cricks in his neck and back, most likely the result of first falling asleep sitting up. He'd fallen over sideways, he now remembered, and the combined pain from the stiffness and the cold air brought him back from his otherwise coma-like state. So naturally, his sleep-fogged brain told him to climb into bed, and to hell with the consequences.

"I swear you're determined to give me an aneurysm before I hit 21." She remarked as she got out of bed and righted her clothes.

"A what?" he said as he rolled his head from side to side, working out the kinks.

"An aneurysm is when a blood vessel in the brain pops." She explained calmly while making the bed. "Nobody's really sure what causes it, but all signs point to constantly high levels of stress. Like waking up next to a guy I only just met." She added pointedly, giving him another sharp look.

Link blinked at her, his arms still reaching above his head; then heaved a sigh. "It's not like I DID anything to you." He pointed out

"Make sure you don't." She said, and it was almost a threat, but at the same time it sounded like a mere statement; or was it a warning. He relaxed and watched her for a minute as she pulled back that exceptionally long mane and fitted the bandana back in place. It was actually pretty clever the way she tucked it, because it hid the upper portion of her ears. It would be difficult to tell that she was anything other than hylian; most would still assume she was just that, based on what they could see.

And now that he thought of it, Link had to wonder. _If she's not Gerudo, and not Hylian, what else could she be?_ It simply defied logic that she was not one or the other, because even the children that were of mixed blood among the Gerudo still looked like they had always been solely of that race; none of them looked hylian in the least. He relaxed and, keeping his eyes on her, picked up his sword and shield from their place against the wall.

"Can I ask you something?" he began, trying to be as polite as possible so as not to provoke her.

"Obviously you just have." She smiled a bit heading for the door, but he stopped her. Already he could see her posture tightening, ready to try flattening him again. "What?" It was sort of creepy the way her tone could change so fast; then again, maybe it hadn't changed all that much in the first place.

"What-?" Link had known what he wanted to ask her, but his eyes, which had focused on her right hand where his fingers gripped her wrist, widened at what he saw. On the ring-finger, right were said jewelry could be placed, was a mark that stood out starkly against her otherwise fair skin. It was an odd reddish-purple and as if it weren't odd enough, it was the perfect shame f a triangle. "What happened to your hand?" Was what he ended up asking before he could correct himself. He too her hand in both of his, staring closely at the odd skin pigmentation, rubbing his finger over, feeling how it was slightly raised, but the surface was very smooth.

"Nothing happened." She replied with practiced ease, as if she'd gone through this explanation about 2,647 times before. "That's just a birthmark, it's always been there." To his immense relief, she didn't sound angry at all. But the look he gave her was nothing short of disbelieving.

_ No way!_ He refused to believe it. There was just no way that this foreign-born creature of a woman could possibly be the keeper of the Triforce of Power. It simply wasn't possible! Link's expression grew hard, his eyes nearly chips of blue ice as he looked down at her. "Who are you really?" He asked, and it was so low and quiet that he could practically see the female before him tremble. However, she was stubborn and refused to let herself be intimidated so easily.

"I told you guys, my name's Sazonia."

"You're lying." He stated shortly. She was staring at the door, a look of horror on her face. She didn't even bother trying to cover it up; it was obvious that she knew she was caught.

She let out a little sigh, and let her head droop from the weight of what she now had to deal with. "What do you want Putzo?" she asked dejectedly.

"Who are you for real?" Link asked, keeping one hand on her wrist, the other on the doorknob.

"Do you want a name or a personal history?" she inquired through gritted teeth.

"Let's start with a name." He answered.

"Aurea." She bit out. "And if you must pry, then you'll have to wait." He arched one blond eyebrow at this, a challenge. "I have to go make breakfast you dummy." She said, about ready to let loose the nearest container of whoop-ass on HIS ass.

Link followed her down to the kitchen and would not leave her be while she worked, continually annoying the hell out of her with his unending questions.

"Where do you come from?"

"Nowhere near here." She replied, mixing something in a huge bowl.

"Could you be a little more vague?" He asked sarcastically, his expression irate.

Aurea turned to him with a devious smirk. "Maybe." She replied, only earning a snort of further irritation. But she didn't really care if he was mad at her; he deserved what he gave out. _Ah the balances of the universe._ She though as she turned back to the stove with the massive spanse heating up. But the little victory thought was short-lived.

"Where PRECISELY do you come from?" Link could tell this time he'd asked the right question, because she paused in her actions.

"Nowhere in Hyrule." She said placidly, and then turned back to him, her expression almost hurt. "That's what you want to hear right?" Link was silent as he looked at a crack in the old stone-laid floor.

"So, what are you anyway?" he asked quietly; then looked up to see her perplexed face staring at him.

"Now who's being vague?" she remarked, and spooned some of the batter she'd been working on onto the flat surface of the stove where it sizzled and sent of a wonderful smell. Link was having a hard time ignoring the scent of some new food, but even so, he managed it.

"If you're not Hylian and not Gerudo, then…" he left the sentence unfinished and just held his hands up as if to say 'What?'

"Ah I get it: What RACE am I." Now it mad sense. Aurea looked around for a spatula and started to flip the odd circular things over, so that they now showed the golden brown side. "I'm human, not that it's anything to brag about." The way she said the last part made Link look more straightly at her.

"Meaning?"

"Okay, speaking in a very general way, the human race is about as smart as a box of rocks all put together."

Link arched one eyebrow again. "But you're human?"

"There are exceptions to nearly every rule out there, you should know that." She replied, smiling a bit, while collecting the food from the stove. "Sooner or later someone is going to be smart enough to survive where someone else has not. It all kinda balances out."

"If you're not maimed by an idiot." He remarked, not smirking a bit too.

She turned to him with a wide grin on her face, holding the plate of food in her hands. "Welcome to my world." Link snorted and shook his head at this.

"What makes it YOUR world?" he asked, suspecting a joke.

And sure enough… "The fact that I survive it and pay rent." He let out the first real laugh he'd had in a long time, and it almost hurt his ribs to do so. He nearly doubled over, holding his side, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. "I'm guessing you needed that." Aurea said, not unkindly. Link stood straight again, smiling and gave a nod with as much dignity as he could after having nearly passed out from laughter. "C'mon, breakfast, better than talking." And she led him into the bar and set the plate down in front of him. Needless to say, Link wasn't sure what the stuff was. Aurea simply handed him a knife and fork and said, "There's butter and syrup if you want it. If you need anything else I'll be in there." She gestured towards the kitchen. She was gone before Link could ask what exactly she had given him, but it was probably for the best.

_ At least it can't kill me._ He hoped to high heaven. Taking her suggestion, he smeared some butter on the odd, warm, round, brown, flat things, and poured a bit of the syrup on top. And now he knew what the knife and fork were for, since trying to eat this with his hands would end up being a lovely mess. He cut the things into smaller, more manageable pieces and took a tentative bite. Astonishment was quickly becoming a companion when it came to her cooking. What he'd been served actually tasted pretty good. It was some kind of sweet, bread-like substance, a little spongy, and fluffy too. But his mouth felt dry after the first six mouthfuls and he needed something to drink, or else die of cottonmouth. He ventured in and tried to keep quiet, while at the same time being lulled by the delicious scent of more of the same food slowly simmering on the stove. And he was nearly floored when something smacked him lightly on the back of the head.

"Need something?" Said Aurea's voice, deliberately sounding too sweet.

Link smiled, looking a bit like the kid with his hand in the cookie-jar. "Could I have something to drink?"

"Course you can." She actually laughed. "What would you like?"

"Is there milk?"

"Sure. Now out!" she said shooing him. "Keep eating and I'll be right back." Link had an image in his head of her as the stereotypical grandmother, always insisting that kids were too thin unless they weighed 200 pounds or more. The mental image made him chuckle just as she came out again with a tall glass of milk. "Make sure you don't laugh while drinking this, it'll come out your nose." She said jokingly, and Link had to hold his side from laughing too hard again. It was really only funny because the Kokiri children did that to each other on occasion, and in spite of the fact of their age, they were all still kids at heart. When she left again, he found himself looking after her.

"What's the matter with me?" he wondered in quiet words to himself.

"You woke up to early." Said a random somebody, taking the stool next to Link's.

Link could only nod while holding in his laughter. It was odd how they could be so on edge and ready to rip each other's throats out one minute, then be calm and even friendly the next. _Life is full of weirdness._ Link mused as he took another long sip of his milk.

Aurea came out from the kitchen again, and spotting the new customer, walked over to him. "Would you like anything for breakfast sir?" she asked politely.

"Yeah, I think so." Said the man, now eyeing her up and down none too discretely. Link tried not to watch and listen, but being in a quiet room with people talking right next to you makes it very difficult not to accidentally eavesdrop. "I'll have what he's having," He jabbed a thumb in Link's direction. "And a slice of you on the side." At that Link couldn't help but glance up, watching to see what Aurea's reaction would be.

"Oh you don't wanna eat me; you don't know where I've been." She remarked with a smile that suggested she was slightly insane.

_ Yeesh that was creepy! _Link thought while trying his best to hide the chill that went up his spine.

As soon as she had disappeared back into the kitchen, the stranger chuckled. "Spicy little dish isn't she?" In reply, Link gave him a sideways glare and shrugged.

"She's catty when she needs to be." He remarked dryly and finished his meal amid a, 'hmph', from the other man. Aurea came back out carrying another plate of food, and as she had with Link, set it down before the stranger.

"If you need anything let me know." She said simply.

But before she was gone again…"Excuse me Miss." Link said and she paused and looked back, smiling.

"Yes sir?" He tossed her a bright red rupee, which she caught, looking surprised.

"My complements." He said grinning for the entire world like a well-fed cat and left the Inn. Aurea didn't quite know what to make of this and would have liked to think it out. But with more people coming down the stairs for their morning meal, she had little time to think of anything other than pancakes, eggs, bacon, toast …

The first place Link stopped by were the stables were Epona still waited. She nuzzled his face in greeting and teased him by taking his hat and keeping from him for a few minutes. Normally, this was her way of telling him to lighten up, but even she could see that this morning he was different. And it wasn't just the fact that it was still morning and he was here, his whole demeanor was more light-hearted. He laughed and played for a second to get his hat back, and still chuckled when he finally had it back on his head. Link even patted her and gave her more oats than usual. And while she ate, he picked up a brushed and rubbed her down so thoroughly that even the royal grooms could not do so well. Having a horse as more than a means of transportation consequently meant that he was more apt at taking care of her. And while he brushed then saddled Epona, Link's mind wandered in a circular pattern around Aurea. There were things about her he did not understand at all. For instance, that birthmark on her hand meant nothing to her, but it would mean a world to anyone who saw it; did she know that, or even care? And what was the human race? Were they the hylians of another world maybe? And why, oh why, did she wear pants? These thoughts and others chased each other around Link's head for quite some time, even after he'd made his way out of the gates and into Hyrule Field.

Later on, after the sun had set and the barkeeper had removed the last few stragglers, Aurea had decided to head and lug some water to her room for a bath. Soaking in the luxury that was a good scrub in the tub, her mind wandered a bit. The thought of Link bobbed to the surface, the way he smiled and laughed, when he really did laugh. The fact that he was one of the only people who treated her like a person more than an object spoke highly of him in her mind. And she was suddenly assaulted by an image of him unlocking the door right now and finding her sitting there bathing. A shameless blush colored her cheeks.

_ Don't think about that!_ She chided herself. _You've got better things to worry about._ And that of course was quite true. It had not escaped her than the few people she had talked to, and the geographical and architectural plain of existence she now found herself in was familiar; at least, in a way it was. But even after two days of staying in Hyrule Market Place, she had a hard time believing it was real. The Legend of Zelda, Link, Hyrule, all of it was real. She'd seen, felt, and experienced enough to know it could not be a dream; unless maybe she was in a coma or she died or something, none of which seemed very likely. Maybe it was just some extreme form of stress showing itself in the form of delusion? Even that idea seemed a little far-fetched. Aurea heaved a deep sigh as she scrubbed her hair and rinsed it again in the water. What she wanted, and she was ashamed to admit it to herself, was something like a friend, a confident whom she could talk to and just get it all off her chest. Again the mental image of Link's smiling face came unbidden to the surface of her thoughts. And a wry smile crept over her own face. As much as she would have liked him to be that friend she needed, she still doubted that he, or anyone else for that matter, had the sympathy needed for it. _Besides,_ she though ruefully, _He's got his princess to look after._ But there, as it happens she was wrong. Aurea had no idea that there was no Princess Zelda anymore, no royal family to speak of who had any right to claim dominion over the Kingdom.

Two weeks went by and Link had slipped right back into his usual funk. All the Kokiri noticed, even though the Sage of Forest was the only one who really seemed to give a damn. Link sat next to his life-long friend on the steps to the Forest Temple.

"You miss her." Said the little green-haired girl.

"Hunh?" said Link, who had been staring out into space, his mind adrift.

"That woman you met in the Castle Market Place. You miss her don't you?" She elaborated, and Link then looked profoundly shocked.

"I don't miss her." She said not looking at his friend but focusing on his boots instead. "I'm just thinking…" his voice trailed away.

"Link, as long as I've known you, you've always stunk at lying." The little girl sighed, shaking her head.

"At least I'm consistent." Link grumbled, leaning back on his hands and looking up through the trees.

"And I'd bet she reminds you of someone else." The little girl said smartly. Link threw her a sharp glance, and was a bit annoyed when she still smiled knowingly at him.

"That's no longer funny." And now his tone had turned stony and even a bit hurt.

"I wasn't saying it to be funny Link." She said gently, and edged closer to him, putting a tiny hand on his much larger shoulder. "Look, moping around the Lost Woods isn't going to help you at all. And I think it's already getting to you brain." That made the corners of his mouth turn up ever so slightly. "Go visit her and see what happens. You kept telling me she was so odd and made you laugh so much." A fuller grin spread across his face now.

"Alright, I've got the point." He relented, looking like he'd been forced to eat caster oil or something equally sickening and then compliment the cook on a job-well-done.

"Besides you need to go to the market anyway." She pointed out. "You're getting low on supplies and," Her nimble fingers started to tease his middle, "your ribs are starting to stick out." Link laughed and picked her off himself, holding her off the ground while she pretended to struggle t get down, giggling all the while.

"I've got the message Saria I'll get going."

"Good because if you don't, I'll tickle you 'til you pass out." Saria said in a pretend threatening tone of voice. Link chuckled as he picked her up and sat her down on his shoulders, giving her a piggyback ride.

"You know one thing I still find strange?" he said as they strode through the Lost Woods back to Kokiri village like that. "It's kind of weird that you're older than me, and I can lift you up like you're the kid." She knocked her knuckles against the crown of his head at this, though not very hard since she was not as physically capable as a fully grown hylian.

"Don't forget I raised you and I could tell you new girlfriend a few stories if I wanted." Link almost tripped over an exposed tree root at this.

"She's not my girlfriend!" He blurted out, his cheeks going crimson and making Saria giggle again. The truth was, Saria knew Link didn't want to think of this strange woman as a girlfriend, or really anything more than a friend who happened to be female. She knew he was still grieving over the loss of the Princess and that that wound would probably never fully heal. But if it was to heal at all, he needed this interaction. One who was not of the Kokiri could not spend his entire life stuck in the woods, and Link was just that kind of free spirit. Saria knew and understood this from day one, when his mother had died trying to get him someplace safe. And if Saria had ever been given the choice between caging him and killing him, she'd choose the latter out of kindness. Her small arms hugged him around the forehead as she thought on these sentiments.

Link packed a few things he needed to bring with him and made his way past the massive old hollow log that served as the barrier between the Kokiri and the rest of Hyrule. Standing on the edge of the forest, he pulled something blue out of his leather pouch. The Ocarina of Time still looked as good as new, with its polished candy-shell brilliance and the expertly shaped holes and mouthpiece. Putting it to his lips, he closed his eyes and remembered. Link's fingers moved with practiced ease as he played Epona's song. Each note rang as clearly as bells through the open plains of Hyrule Field. And in a moment, there was his faithful mare trotting up to him, panting and nuzzling affectionately.

"Glad to see you too." He chuckled as he dodged her attempt to snatch his hat. "Not today girl." He said and tied the few things he'd carried with him into the saddle bags and in their proper place. He mounted patting her neck and directed the mare at a brisk pace towards Hyrule Castle. But even as he watched the structure draw closer, he couldn't help growing apprehensive. Suppose something had happened to Aurea in his absence? Suppose she had just picked up and left? Or perhaps worst of all, if she had become a whore? _What the hell is wrong with me?_ Link wondered as he and Epona clomped over the bridge and into the market. _I'm acting like I'll never see her again._ And this thought in turn left him wondering why he should really care if he never saw her again. After all, he barely knew her right? Guiding the mare to the stables again, Link had just finished brushing and feeding her, when a loud CHOP sounded in his ears. He glanced around, and quickly identified what it was. There, cleaving firewood with an axe was the object of his preoccupation. She was wearing gloves and her long hair was braided very tightly down its entire length. Feeling inclined to do the proper, manly thing, he walked over to her, but still kept at a safe distance before speaking.

"Need any help?" He asked a tad too politely.

"Forty-eight." She said idly.

"Hunh?"

Aurea actually looked up then and seemed surprised. "Did know it was you." She said, dark eyebrows arched. At Link's still confused expression, she smiled. "You're the forty-eighth guy to ask me if I needed help with this." She explained, setting another log in place. She raised the axe over her head for proper leverage and brought it down again. With another CHOP, the wood fell in two even pieces.

"He has you doing hard labor?" Link asked, shifting his weight to one foot and crossing his arms.

"Hey it needed to get done. And anyway it's not like I'm so helpless I can't handle it." She replied smiling at him again. "I've tackled worse than this before."

"Like what?" Now he was curious

"Like doing this with a bruised vein." She said, making a face.

"Doesn't sound so bad." He said shrugging.

"Oh really?" Aurea sounded slightly annoyed now. "You try it then tell me it isn't so bad."

"What's so awful about a bruised vein?"

"You've never had that happen to you, have you?" she asked, a knowing smile creeping onto her features. In all truth Link had never experienced it while knowing for sure what it was, so he couldn't give a positive answer.

"I probably have." He said carefully, shifting his weight.

"Probably?" There was that arched expression again. "You either have or you haven't and I only know which is which because one of them means you're barely able to move you arm at all without being in pain."

"Wimp." He muttered with a challenging smirk. By way of reply, Aurea put down the axe, set the pieces of wood aside and promptly walked over to Link, socking him in the arm in a none too lady-like fashion. He was surprised to find that it actually hurt, though not terribly, but it was enough.

"That was uncalled for." He stated, trying not to smile, because she was grinning up at him. For the first time he noticed that she was a few inches shorter than him. Had he so easily forgotten?

'No, I think you called for it." She remarked, still grinning like that. "Just remember this is one of my good days." She said gathering some of the wood and placing it in the box by the back of the Inn.

"Could have fooled me." Link chuckled a bit dryly.

"Well okay, smacking someone around to prove a point is just me being myself. On my bad days I'm a catty, sarcastic and charmingly cynical bitch."

"Yeah big difference." He retorted trying not to laugh…too hard.

"Oh shut up and give me a hand." She grunted, picking up more wood. Link still smirked and clapped his hands. "Sarcastic bastard." She grumbled, though unable to hide the humor in it.

"Catty bitch." Link countered, picking up more wood than her and placing it in the box.


	3. Bring On The Night

A/N: My thanks go out to those who were bold enought to post reviews. You people are my muses and YOU ROCK! To all those who read but did not review, well YOU ALL SUCK! ahem Now that that's out of my system, what say we get on with the ficing shall we?

Chapter 3

"Okay, your turn." Aurea said over her bowl of potato soup.

"How old are you?" Link asked, knowing the risks. He bit down on a sizable chunk of meatloaf while he waited the entire two seconds before her answer. They were both enjoying having dinner together in the kitchen, even though Aurea had insisted he would get in her way, and he insisted he wouldn't. Link had spent the afternoon in the market, bargaining with a merchant he did business with. Considering where the young man normally lived, and his fine skills, he was more than sufficient at hunting and trapping. The skins and pelts he sold to the merchant brought in plenty of rupees for him to live one, especially since most of his income came from finding a few rupees where his fallen prey usually lay. And when he got back and the scents of tempting foods tied a bow around his nose, he felt less inclined to dine near the regular thickheads tonight. So here he was, eating another excellent meal and engaging in a game he'd never heard of anywhere. But as odd as it was, Link had to admit it was fun in its way; which was to say, it was fun because Aurea blushed and looked annoyed every now and then from his less than gentlemanly questions.

"It's improper to ask a lady her age; you know it." She could not have put on a better façade of being prim and proper.

"Since when were you a lady?" he smirked over the edge of his cup of wine.

"Hey watch it wise-guy. I cooked your dinner remember?"

"After I paid for it." Link retorted.

"That doesn't keep me from doctoring it." She said with a wicked grin. At this, Link's face went pale and serious and he looked suspiciously down at his food. Aurea burst out laughing. "I'm just kidding!" It was hard not to laugh at the look on his face. "And anyway I'm still young enough that I don't care what people think of my age."

"Well then?" He still looked a bit ashen-faced, earning another giggle from her.

"I'm nineteen, going on twenty." She said easily, taking another bite of her soup. Link's pale blue glass eyes stared at her, his mouth hanging open, a lump of hot mashed potato sitting patiently on his fork just in front of his mouth.

"You're kidding." His voice wounded quite amazed at the idea.

"I know, I seem older." She said with a wry kind of smile now.

"Um, well no, it's just …" his voiced trailed off once he'd found himself unable to straighten out his words. If he tried to speak now, he'd most likely end up with a bowl of hot potato soup over his head. However, the young woman across from him chose to laugh, thank the goddesses.

"It's funny, but I hear that from everyone." She said, deeply amused. "Once when I was sixteen, this guy thought I was twenty-four." Link's arched expression sent Aurea into another fit of muffled laughter.

"So, what happened?" He asked once he'd recovered from the shock.

"He took off like a bat outta hell knowing he was hitting on a minor!" she nearly choked on her own laughter. And link could clearly see a tear forming at the corner of one of her eyes from such mirth. Once she managed to control herself, she took a drink of her water, and heaved a contented sigh. "My turn." She had to think for a moment, so Link just took another long sip of his wine. "Do you have a girlfriend?" Link snorted into his cup, before glancing up at her, looking more than a little like a grinning fiend.

"I…No, I never really have." He was about to say he 'used to have a girlfriend.' But if he was being honest with himself, he and the Princess had never really been more than very close friends. The question had stung a bit, but he was determined not to let Aurea know that. "My turn." His lips curved to where he looked a tad too sinister for him. "Are you a virgin?"

Aurea choked on her water so badly that she was coughing for a few minutes. "Went down the wrong tube." She wheezed slightly. Link wisely kept his mouth shut, fearing that if he didn't, he'd pull all the muscles in his stomach from laughing. But as things currently stood, he might've cracked a few ribs anyway. "Well first you have to understand," Link picked up his for and put another bite of meatloaf in his mouth. "Where I'm from, most women my age gave up virginity somewhere in the previous four or five years." Link choked hard and found himself unable to breath. In a second Aura was beside him and her hand THWACKed his back so hard that the blockage came flying out, sailed through the air and nailed the bartender squarely in the eye just as he was walking in the swinging door. With the half-chewed lump of beef in his eye, he stumbled over backwards and out again, the door swinging neatly shut. Doing her best not to die of laughter, because the situation was actually kind of serious, Aurea handed Link her glass of water and went out to see if her employer were still alive. Link took one sip of the water and made a face. So he switched back to his win instead, only to find that there was only really one good gulp left. Aurea meanwhile was waving a hand in front of the bartender's face, having cleared off the offending bit of Link's dinner. "Hello?" she said a few times trying to get a response, while checking for a pulse with her other hand. Presently the man's eyes blinked balefully and he sat up. "You okay?" she asked him, sounding far more general than concerned.

"I'm fine, quit fussing woman." He said gruffly, since a few of the men were staring at them. He then received a sharp smack to the side of his head.

"I have a name; Use it." She said in a cold biting voice. And with that, she stood, turned on her heal, and went back into the kitchen. Link was sitting there, now with a bottle of wine open, taking gulps out of that rather than pouring any out into his cup. Aurea noticed there was also a plate of grapes beside him; a few of the tangled stems were devoid of fruit. "Are you just trying to get smashed?" she asked sitting in her place across from him again.

"You didn't answer my question." He said and though he was still sitting up straight, he already seemed a little inebriated to Aurea. She sighed and shook her head, feeling it wouldn't kill her to tell him the truth.

"Well I told you most women my age aren't virgins anymore." She gave a pause for dramatic effect, and Link's somewhat hazed eyes looked expectant. "But I'm not most women." She finished with a satisfied smile.

"So," He lifted the open bottle to his lips again. "You're still, I mean, you've never-?"

"No, I've never slept with a man; Jeez!" she said, exasperated that he was making her say what was more or less common knowledge. At least from her point of view it should have been common knowledge. Link propped an arm on the table resting his chin in that hand, and gazed shamelessly at her.

And finally, Aurea was discomposed enough to ask, "What?"

"You're just really pretty." He said, still giving her that same look.

Aurea blinked. "Now I know you're drunk." She said, and he laughed at that. "I'm gonna go sing in a few minutes." She said, and her expression was gentler now. "Wanna come watch?"

"Yeah..." Link said getting to his feet more steadily than she'd have guessed him capable right now. Maybe he really wasn't drunk? Or else he was just a sober sort of drunk, who knows? They went out together and separated at the stairs. Link went to find a place to sit while she dashed up the steps and disappeared. He briefly wondered why she went up there, but didn't have much time to ponder on it before something else literally grabbed his attention. One of the local harlots had taken the opportunity to use his lap as a seat for her rather bony behind. Link winced slightly with the feeling of his thighbones being dented.

"Hi there hottie." She giggled in his ear, and the sickeningly sweet smell of too much perfume nearly made him gag. "Feelin' lonely?" She said not really giving room for an answer as she walked her fingers up his chest. "I know I am." She purred.

"I'm a loner." Link said uninterested, using his hands to lean her away by the shoulders, hoping she'd get the message.

"Oh c'mon." She whined, wrapping one arm snake-like around his neck and picking up the wine-bottle with the other. The little painted hussy dragged her tongue around over the opening, watching her prey the whole time and finally moving her thumb over the opening. Link's face now looked more annoyed and excited.

"Look, would you just…" But he trailed off at the uproar of male hooting and hollering. Looking around, Link quickly found what the noise was all about. There was Aurea sitting on the end of the piano, presently with her back to the audience. It was hard to see what she was wearing in this like, but whatever it was, it looked rather dark, maybe black, and made of something that cast a dull shine, like velvet.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Came the bartender's voice. "Miss Sazonia in an act, of desperation." The music had already started while he was speaking and for the moment, the audience was quiet, waiting for the silvery feminine tones.

"My sister and I had an act that couldn't flop." She turned slowly to peek over one shoulder at the audience. "My sister and I were headed straight for the top." Now she faced them fully and the long legs, bare from the knees to the ankles could be seen, sitting poised and exposed from the part in the cloak or whatever it was that she was wearing. "My sister and I earned a bow, a week at least." She winked playfully. "Oh yeah, But my sister is now unfortunately deceased." A low ripple of laughter came with the jokingly light tones of the piano. "I know it's sad of course, but a fact, is still a fact." Anyone could pick up on the theatrically pained expression on her fair face, so naturally that got a few laughs too. Link was finding it difficult to watch because the one whore was still in his lap, edging this way and that trying to get him aroused, and preferably to notice her, not the singing kitchen girl. "And now all that remains, of a perfect, double, act." A rap of the piano keys punctuated each of the last few words and then she had slid gracefully to the wood floor again. "Watch this!" This part was not sung but rather spoken with great enthusiasm and her audience was more than willing to let themselves be drawn in. "Now you have to imagine it with two people!" She said placing her arms just so, so that the covering she wore slid easily off. "It's swell with two people!" She was revealed to be wearing the very oddest kind of dress anyone in Hyrule had ever seen. It was mostly of blues and whites, with a very short navy-blue skirt with a thin grayish belt. But coming down past that was a large ruffle of fabric that seemed to be attached to the left side of the top, or shirt, or whatever it was. The stuff covering her upper body looked as though it somehow closed in the front, because they had all seen that the back was solid fabric. The base color of this was a richer, more royal blue with some odd white ruffles over the front and lower edges that almost looked like flowers of some kind. And for some odd reason she was also wearing some read ribbon that laced up to her upper arms, but was obscured by the ruffled sections of blue that covered her arms from elbow to wrist, ending in very open cuffs with a little dip to them. Perhaps strangest of all were the golden-tan color of the boots she wore making the rest of the outfit appear exceptionally rich. "First I'd…" the music played without her voice and she did a silly little dance for a few seconds. "Then she'd…" her voice had been lowered for that part, and she did another little snippet of a different dance while the music went on. "Then we'd" One move, then the other while both sets of music seemed to mesh and work together. She faced them looking innocently helpless, hands raised in the universal confused position. "But I can't do it alone. Then she'd…" Again though with different music and movements the pattern started. "Then I'd..." Link was losing the feeling in his feet and it was staring to creep up his legs. "Then we'd…" Aurea did some impressive twirling, given her outfit looked a bit difficult to move in. "But I can't do it alone." Link was just about ready to tell the hussy to bug off, but he was interrupted by Aurea's voice again. "She'd say, 'What's your sister like?' I'd say, 'Men.'" There came laugh from the audience, the exception being the woman who wouldn't get a clue and leave the young blond man alone. "She'd say, 'You're the cat's meow,' and we'd wow the crowd again, when she'd go…" again the pattern of music and some intricate dancing. "I'd go…" Link had the opportunity and took it, firmly standing the woman up and facing her away from himself. "We'd go…" The shameless hooker looked about ready to either scratch his beautiful eyes out, or burst out saying, 'Well, I never!' "Then those ding-dong-daddies started to roar." Aurea stepped easily up onto an empty chair, all eyes, lustful or angry, were on her. "Whistled stomped, stamped on the floor." She stomped her foot for dramatic emphasis as she now rose to a tabletop. "Yelling, screaming begging for more." Any who were watching with an artistic eye, which was no one present, would've said she had the acting for this down pat. "And we said, 'Okay boy's, keep your socks up, cause you ain't seen nothing yet.'" The star-in-the-making shook her hips and did some rather impressive footwork on the table, which shook a bit under the pressure of rapid taps. Striking a pose for a second, she then let it collapse into an easy sitting position with one knee up to her chest. "But I simply cannot do it alone!"

There were whistles and some people tossed rupees, but when she spoke next the audience wondered if she was finished. "So what do you think?" They roared for more. "C'mon, you can say." They cheered even louder. "I know you're right, the first part's shit. But the second par, the second part is really nifty!" She slid off the table and easily snatched an empty chair, dragging it behind her back to her little performing area. "Okay,' Aurea took another deep breath, jerked her thumb over her shoulder. "She'd go…" Stepping one leg towards the front from over the back of the chair, she did another high kick, then a midair turn that let her end up doing the splits over the seat. Leaning back to look at the audience upside-down. "I'd go…" Scissoring the legs closed, she stepped up and off the chair, spun around fast with another higher kick, Her hands back on the chair, she gave a quick bow and, "We'd go!" There was more of that tapping sort of dance.

Link was too busy watching and occasionally whistling with the rest to notice the momentary absence of his bottle of wine. The tricky acrobatics the singing chef was performing were more than enough of a diversion. And over all the whooping and hollering the young blond hylian certainly wouldn't hear the clink of glass on wood as it was set back down next to him.

"And then those two-bit-Jonnys did it a brow, to cheer La Pas and fraction it down. They nearly tore the balcony down. And then we'd say, 'Okay boys, we're goin' home, but before we go, here's a few more parting shots.' And this, this we did in perfect unison!" Nobody but the performer understood the significance of tapping her fingers to her forehead, chest, then either shoulder all right on beat. Still smiling that brilliant smile, she did some kind of move that looked like flat out running, while staying in the same spot. Her slender hands pointed at the ceiling then floor, and she did the same thing in reverse effect.

Sipping his wine again, Link started to think that maybe, just maybe, he'd hat a bit too much to dink tonight. This was unusual for him, since he was no lightweight were alcohol was concerned, but hey, there's a first time for everything. It was getting rather difficult to see Aurea clearly now, but he could see the bright blues and whites, even if they were a bit blurry.

"Now ya see me going through it, ya may think there's nothing to it. But I simply cannot do it, alone!" and just like that, the song and danced ended on a flourish of arms, and fabric. The pianist played an overture while Aurea took a bow and the patrons threw more rupees at her feet. "Thank you all you're too kind." They laughed a little. "Not that I mind in the least right?" That made them all laugh hard and order more drinks. After quickly sweeping up the money she'd been tipped, the performer dashed upstairs to change again.

Link started to stand up, and then hastily sat down again. There was now no doubt in his soggy mind that he'd had way too much liquor. Taking as deep a breath as he could, he bent his head forward and let his free hand catch it, feeling a dull throbbing in his temples.

"Headache honey?" Asked a voice as oily as the hair of the person to which both belonged. Looking up his somewhat smeared vision; he had to blink several times before he could clearly make out a face. Link felt about ready to lose his dinner. Standing next to him, or rather sitting on the edge of his table, was that same whore that refused to leave him alone in the first placed. But this time she was grinning oddly, in a way that meant no good, and playing with his bangs. Link's eyes felt puffy and heavy within his own head, and he could feel something like sleep tugging at him; or maybe that was just the bitch playing around with his hair? It was difficult to tell at this point.

"Link?" Wait that was a different voice wasn't it? He knew whom that voice belonged to. Name, what was the name? He could feel his head being lifted up by a pair of soft, pleasantly warm hands. "Whoa, what happened to you?"

Now he remembered the name… maybe. "Aurea?" There were those pretty green eyes, the lightly flushed skin, the long brown-and-gold hair held back by the white bandana. She blinked, looking a bit scared, but maybe that was just the light. All of a sudden Link's arms were around her waist and he pulled her down into his lap.

Aurea went rigid from the sudden attack; it could really be called that. "Uh, Link?" She said uncertainly hoping nobody had heard him mention her real name.

"Mmm?" he mumbled incoherently as she struggled to her feet. "C'mere, sit down." He pleaded through meshed words, tugging on her hand the way a little child would have done.

"I am sitting." She said gruffly, folding her arms over her chest and crossing her legs to indicate she was firmly planted in her own chair now. "You feeling alright?" she asked, and noticed him hiccup as he leaned back in his own chair, grinning like an idiot.

"I'm fellin' fine." He slurred, and laughed a bit as his companion arched an eyebrow.

"Listen sweetie," a rather edgy voice with an equally narrow body butted in, literally because she took a seat in the young man's lap. "We're really busy here so you can get your ass back to the kitchen now." The hooker had that kind of painted smile that tells anyone watching that she knows perfectly well what she just said. Link meanwhile, was making faces, probably because the woman in his laps was grinding none too gently against a certain area.

Aurea was not the sort to take an insult in stride without giving some of it back. "Girl, you have tow options." She held up two fingers to indicate this, while the other female was wrapping her arm none too loosely around the young man's neck. "Either you get up and leave my buddy alone." She put one finger down, so that she was now flipping the whore off. "Or I haul you skinny ass off him and kick you out. It's you're choice." Aurea was so calm and placid as she spoke that those at nearby tables were staring shamelessly at the little drama. But the one they all recognized, as the singer/cook seemed totally immune to the spectators.

"You wouldn't dare!" The hooker spat, standing up.

"Well since you got off my friend, I don't have to." Said Aurea smiling. And standing up too, she walked over to Link who was grinning again, and hiccupped from laughing a bit too hard. "Uh Link?" She said looking down at him, concerned for his health now. "What's so funny?"

"I finally get your sense of humor, you goofy lil' creature you." With that and a loud CLUNK, he promptly fell face-forward onto the table. A few of those watching laughed and went back to their own company while others just smiled and shook their heads at the situation.

"Dummy." She muttered as she checked for a pulse, which was thankfully there. Trying her best to figure this mess out, she hauled him by the arms across the floor and up the stairs; a dull thud-thud sounding as his boots repeatedly hit the steps. At last Room 3 was in front of her and she let him go to unlock and open the door. Link just seemed to lie there like a crash-test dummy, his head lolled over to one side. _Tch! Funny how he's kinda cute when he's unconscious._ She thought as she dragged him inside by his feet this time. She pulled off his boots and gloves since he'd already deposited his shield, sword and equipment earlier. Lugging him onto the bed was difficult, because it seemed his body wanted to slide off and fall to the floor, but she managed it, somehow. After tucking him in so that he lay of his side, Aurea decided to go back to the kitchen to find a bucket, just in case he needed it during the night. As she jobbed back up the steps, she paused, listening.

"Aww he really is adorable!" Said a simpering voice she didn't know.

"Yeah, hard to believe how young he is." Said a second she did know; it was the whore she'd dealt with downstairs.

"Well let's just get what we can and get outta hear." Said a third voice, which sounded a bit scared. "What if his girlfriend comes back?"

"What if she does?" The second voice spoke again. "Bet I could beat her fat ass any day of the week!" she laughed raucously.

"Is that so?" All three of the intruders jumped and looked around to see the woman in question leaning casually against the doorframe. Apparently none of them had heard her tiptoe up to the room. The bucket she'd brought rested beside her feet on the floor, and went unnoticed anyway. The one who'd been hitting on Link down in the bar stood up from where she'd been sitting, on the edge of the bed, and practically stomped over to Aurea.

"Yes, it is." She said, getting in her face, trying to be intimidating. Aurea was not moved in the slightest.

"You better get your STANKY BREATH OUTTA MY FACE!" The non-hylian roared. It was clear that this was an unexpected reaction, because the woman in front of her looked surprised and stepped back a few paces. But she regained herself and looked huffy again.

"Well I don't feel like leaving." She said in a falsely sulky tone. And sat back down on the bed.

"Tough shit." Aurea bit out. "Now get outta my room!" Since the whore would not move from her place on the bed, Aurea felt it was no occasion for subtlety. She gripped the woman by the wrists and yanked her to her feet. Twisting one arm behind the woman's back, so she couldn't retaliate, the young cook propelled her unceremoniously from the room. Turning about, she saw the other two, who looked closer to her own age, maybe even a bit younger, staring at her with fright. "You tow sisters move it." Aurea snapped and they scampered to the door. "Out-out-out!" She added as an extra incentive. Picking up the bucket, she heaved an exasperated sigh and shut the door. She sat down on the edge of the bed, placing the metal bucket on the floor jut to the side of and below Link's head. For now though, he seemed to be sleeping peacefully, even if his face was a bit flushed. Her hand drifted to his cheek, and she noticed how warm he felt. But it was not enough to make her suppose he might be sick; it wasn't quite that bad. Aurea sighed heavily. She would have liked to call it a night too, but she still had work to do down in the kitchen. So standing up, and making sure the door was properly locked as she went out, she trudged back down the worn wooden steps and into the kitchen for the next few hours.

It was much later now. Aurea and Link had bother been asleep for several hours. They were sharing the same bed mostly because Link could not be moved again in his present state.

Also, Aurea reasoned with herself, _He's not going to do anything anyway,_ knocked out as he was.

But now something had woken her up, which of course was a mistake, since she took getting enough sleep very seriously. In the dim moonlight that peeked between the curtains, she could both see and feel a set of strong arms practically crushing her against and equally powerful chest: at least, that's what she thought it was in her state of half-sleep. Something else was streaming warm and wet against her forehead, and she tried to edge back and look up to see what it was. But eh more she tried to get space between her and the young hylian male, the more tightly he held onto her. She would've been glad to give him a nice knock in the head again, but something reached her ears just then; ragged, uneven breathing, shudders that went all the way through his chest and arms alike.

_ Is he crying?_ Aurea wondered with one hand fisted against his shoulder.

"Zelda," he murmured quietly through another shuddering breath. Aurea was as frozen as a snow cone in Alaska. Again she tried to look up at him, but he just tightened his hold around her body. "I miss you…" he choked through his tears that still ran onto her forehead.

"Link," Aurea whispered, hoarsely. "Are you awake?" There was no reply except for the continued weeping.

"I'm sorry," he cried softly, and Aurea could feel the muscles in his chest and arms straining and clenching painfully beneath his clothes and skin. "I'm so sorry Zelda…" Unconsciously, or so it seemed, he nuzzled his face roughly against her own and she felt his lips press against her cheek. Too shocked to do much of anything, she just lay there listening. "I miss you so much…" He went on like that for what seemed like hours to Aurea, but in reality, it was probably more like a half-hour. Eventually, Link relaxed enough and rested peacefully again; but though Aurea's body slept, her mind was still at work.

_ Okay, don't jump to conclusions._ She told herself firmly. _For all you know this just means she doesn't want to see him again. She's probably alive and well. _She heaved a mental sigh. _If she's okay, then why's he crying like this?_ Link's tears had soaked through the pillow, not to mention some of her hair. And before she let real sleep take her again, Aurea made up her mind. She'd talk to either Link or the Bartender about the Princess's whereabouts. But she noted, as she drifted off, that it might be a better idea to ask the bartender since it was obviously a tender subject with Link.

A/N: As always, update and I really hope you like it THANKS TO ALL WHO REVIEW!


	4. Lifelong Lessions

Okay lemme just say again I love all those who reviewed my story up until this point. YOU PEOPLE RULE! I just hope you all know that. Well here it is, the long-awaited Chapter 4. Sorry for the long wait, remember to blame my evil sadistic teachers that feel the need to all give tests ON THE LAST WEEK BEFORE FINALS! Ahem you know, I feel better now that that's out of my system.

NOTICE: This is just here cause I can't figure out how to do the recommended reading thingy, if anyone knows, please post it in a review and I shall thank you personally in my Author's Notes kind of stuff. I plan to do this for all who review once I have chp 5 written and up and running.

As generally quiet as it was, the young man could already tell this was not going to be an easy morning. If the constantly inflaming pulse behind his eyes and up into the forehead was any indication, he'd probably spend most of the day in bed, at least until the sun began to set in the west. On any other morning, especially after a night like that, he'd have wondered how he had gotten to bed in one piece. But as much as it hurt to think just now, he figured it was probably Aurea doing him a good turn; he'd have to remember to repay the favor at some point. There was a slight movement to his right, and feeling like he'd most likely end up regretting it, Link cracked one eye open. What he saw was not distinguishable at first, so he blinked once or twice to clear his vision. When it became apparent that a set of big green eyes was staring at him, rather closely, he scrambled back trying to gain some breathing space. And the morning was again greeted with a loud THUD of a male body on the hard wood floor of Room 3.

A string of swears and curses, not at all fit for print, issued forth from Link's mouth, while one arm lay haphazardly over his eyes.

"Good morning to you too sunshine." Aurea's amused, though still sarcastic, voice could have been at the other end of the Inn and it would still make his head pound.

"Ngh! Turn off the lights!" The young man groaned from the floor.

"The lights aren't on." Came the female's voice, more gently now.

"Then close the curtains!" He grumbled.

"It's still night outside." Aurea replied, sitting up and looking out the window at the dark-gray world beyond. She looked back down at the adorably pathetic site literally laid out before her. "How do you feel?" she asked more gently still.

"Like I got flattened." He mumbled irritably.

"You hungry?" she asked, standing up from the bed, stepping over him and stretching a bit. "I'll go make breakfast in a minute."

"Fuck breakfast; fuck everything." He groaned again, and the silence that followed this oration told him she was probably staring at him.

"You've got a mouth on you don't you?" She nearly laughed.

"What's so damn funny?" He ground out.

"No more alcohol for you." She said more seriously now, and Link removed his arm to peek one eye open again. "You're crabby after you drink." She stated coolly.

"I think my bottle was tampered with." He said as he gingerly got to his feet, testing his sore limbs against an infinitely more pained head.

"Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me." Aurea muttered, not really intending him to hear her. But he did.

"Why's that?" He asked through a yawn.

"Don't ask," Link stared at her. "Trust me on this, you don't wanna know."

That reminded him of something he'd been thinking about while he was out the previous day. There was much and more besides that could be found in the market place of Hyrule Castle. And rumors, therefore, spread like the plague, and grew wilder with each person who relayed them. Link's azure gaze settled on Aurea as she continued to braid her long hair into a tight rope. It was probably just best to come out and say it, he figured.

"They're talking about you in the Market Place." She looked up at him with a perplexed expression.

"Who's doing what now?"

"Nearly everyone in the Market Place was talking about you yesterday." Link told her, trying his best to stand his ground in this respect. But there was doubt that doing so while she was giving him that look was difficult.

"Do I want to know why?" she asked slowly, her hands paused in the action of tying up the end of her braid.

"Let's think," He replied in mock puzzlement. "Could it be because, you sing, you dance, you cook, you have the mark of the Triforce on your hand, and you're the weirdest thing to happen to Hyrule since anyone can remember?" She was frowning, and not in the thoughtful way.

"As opposed to sleeping in a temple for seven years while the world goes to hell around you?" She retorted, bitterly. Aurea was irritated, to say the least and frankly didn't give a damn that Link was looking at her with pure shock. It wasn't like she wanted to be here in the first place; something had just happened and even though she wasn't responsible for it, she still had to cope with it one way or another.

Link could not believe his ears. She had not just said that. It wasn't possible that she could know what had happened all those years ago. The only people who did know were he, the Princess, and the other six sages. And Aurea did not qualify as any of them.

_ So how in the hell does she know!_ He wondered, still dazed.

For a long time there was a thick silence, then… "So, what exactly are they saying about me? Anything I couldn't guess?" Aurea asked, not looking at him.

Again that awkward-as-hell silence before he answered. "Some think you're Ganondorf's daughter come to seek revenge or something." He muttered as he sat on the edge of the bed next to her.

"Ha! That's rich." She snorted, actually smirking. "And do they also think I'm the living incarnation of a Goddess? Or maybe I'm the leader of some obscure cult." She went on, not immediately noticing that Link was again staring at her dumbfounded.

"You already knew?"

She looked at him, her mirth dying instantly. "Oh Gods, don't TELL me that!"

"What?" He was forever confused by her reactions, or her phrasings, if not everything else about her. "You just said-."

"I know what I just said, but I didn't actually MEAN any of it!" She groaned miserable. "Do they really think I'm all those things?"

"Different groups think different things." He paused to choose his words carefully as he answered. "But all together they think those things. Some are still certain that you're Gerudo."

"Morons; I'm surrounded by morons." She muttered with the heels of her hands against her forehead, her fingers gripping her long hair by the roots. Aurea jumped slightly when she felt his arm around her back with his hand resting on her shoulder, giving her a gentle hug, or squeeze or something.

"Sit up." He said removing his arm from her and getting up off the bed.

She did so, not caring to start an argument. "Then what?"

"Stand up." Link replied tugging his boots on and plucking his cap off the bedpost.

Aurea made a rough sound in the back of her throat. "Sit up, stand up, throw up." She grumbled as she finished with her hair.

"You're not going to be sick." He said calmly.

"Not if I faint first." That last remark made him look around at her with concern. To him, she still looked alright, although a tad paler than she should have.

"Do you usually?" he asked, almost ready to catch her if she did fall over.

"After having a pint of blood drawn every two months for the past year and a half, I still have yet to pass out, don't worry." She said flatly, though the slight upward curve of her lips told Link he was not in any danger from her sarcastic wrath. Rather, it looked to him as though she were trying to smile when she really didn't feel like doing so. In later years, Link would look back on this and laugh heartily, but at the time he would laugh for a few minutes in the present too. Since her back was now to him, her hand on the doorknob, he took the opportunity to catch her off-guard and danced his fingers over her ribs. He was repaid with a shrill squeal of the kind of laughter that is a reflex, then a hard nudge in the side from her elbow. "Oh it's on now!" Aurea growled playfully. Within minutes the two of them were laughing hysterically, each trying to make the other fall over laughing. But it was clear that Link had the advantage and managed to pin Aurea to the floor, if only for a few minutes.

"You yield?" He asked, catching his breath from laughing so much. But at that precise moment, she had somehow twisted her wrists out of his hands and seized him by both long pointed ears.

"Hell no." she giggled as his eyes crossed then straightened themselves out again. While he was busy trying to right himself, Aurea's fingers encountered something she hadn't noticed before. In each of his earlobes hung a tiny silvery hoop. "You have pierced ears?" She said in wonder, though it wasn't really a question.

"Yeah. Could you let go?" he asked, while trying to lean away a bit.

"If you could get off me." She retorted, trying to shift to where she was able to breathe. "You're kinda heavy and crushing my ribs."

Link coughed and grumbled an apology of some sort. "Please let go." Aurea still had a firm grip on his ears.

"I will when you sit up."

"I can't move when you're pulling my ears off!" The throbbing was back in his head again and bothering him to the point where his eyes slid painfully closed.

"Okay, okay, this is what we're gonna do." Link only listened to her because as things currently stood, he had no choice. "On the count of three, I let you go, and you get off me okay?"

"Whatever." He said in a complaining voice

"One…Two…THREE!" They both backed off and Link was on his feet so fast that he nearly fell over again. "Don't you try that again putzo." Aurea said a little testily, though one look at her would've told anyone that she'd found the situation quite hysterical. Then again, most people in Hyrule didn't know what she knew, they couldn't. The young male hylian was muttering something about pain, but his exact words were unclear because he was grumbling so furiously. "Oh quit whining already." Aurea said through an exasperated sigh. "Remember you started it." Link had noticed the change in her voice, it was more serious now, even subdued. But although he wanted to, he knew there was no point in asking her what was wrong. It was probably best to let her come to him, always assuming she ever would.

Less than ten minutes later, he was sitting at the small table in the kitchen, watching Aurea as she cooked breakfast, and trying not to look as though he were constantly staring a little too low. It was difficult trying to convince himself that the pinkness he could feel in his cheeks was due solely to the heat from the stove. It was even harder trying to remember when exactly he had gone to bed with her, and furthermore, if anything had happened. But on these details, his memory was a total blank. The only good thing about this was that he couldn't remember that damned dream that he knew he probably had. In fact that was the only benefit for getting completely sloshed every now and again, was that if he dreamed of his lost princess, he didn't recall it the next morning; though that was usually due to the fact that he would be nursing an ungodly hangover. Link heaved a sigh as his gaze dropped to a burn mark on the table, probably where a candle had burned too low. How many nights had he been torn apart from the inside by that accursed vision? Every night for the past two years, it was hard to believe it had been that long ago. To him, it felt more like it had happened maybe a few weeks, or a month ago at the most. With his still tender forehead in his hand, his fingers gripping his messy blond hair, Link let his other fist clench tightly as it rested on the surface of the table.

_ Damn it all, IT'S NOT FAIR!_ He though bitterly, still angry at the sick irony of it all. After surviving for seven years as a sheikah, while he slept through it all in the temple of time; after risking life and limb to help him survive the sickest obstacles Ganondorf had placed in his path at every turn; after losing her once when she finally told him the truth; after that last battle permanently seared into his memory; after sending both of themselves back to the way things should have been, then growing up with the life they should have had, what had finally been her end? _After getting past everything that can bite, sting, burn, zap, poison, stab, shoot, and rip her to shreds, she does of a-!_ A pair of fingers snapped under his nose and brought him sharply out of his thoughts. Link looked up, not aware that he was still glaring hard until he saw the look on the singing chef's face. Feeling guilty, his head bowed again, and his eyes refused to meet hers.

"You feeling okay?" she asked, and the concern made him feel all the worse.

"Hangover." He mumbled, and would have kicked himself for sounding so childish. At least, he though he sounded childish. A plate of food came into view and he stared at it for a moment, the looked up at Aurea quizzically.

"French Toast." She said, meaning that as an answer to his unasked question. Link merely blinked and looked at it again. The stuff did look like it was toast, but since he didn't know what "French" meant he wasn't sure what to make of it. As far as he could tell, it looked like someone had sliced up some bread and seared it in a frying pan, though with exactly what was none to clear to him. "Try it, it's good." Aurea encouraged as she turned back to the stove. There was a sound of sizzling as another few pieces hit the hot frying pan and Link heaved another sigh. Her cooking hadn't killed him yet, he saw no reason why it would now. Yet again he was in a state of smooth rich bliss as he chewed and swallowed the first bite. If he hadn't known better, he might've thought that she added something suspicious to put people in that mood whenever they ate her food. Then again, if she did so, he wasn't about to complain, at least not now. "Feeling better?" he heard her ask as she sat down with a plate of her own breakfast.

Link nodded. "Much better." He said before stuffing another piece in his mouth. Aurea was trying to keep her giggles from escaping her throat.

"You're gonna be sick if you wolf it down like that." She said, and Link actually smiled a bit fiendishly.

"Yes mother." Now that made her laugh, and he had to hold his breath while he swallowed, so as not to choke.

"Don't you take that tone with me young man!" she chuckled in a falsely maternal tone of voice. Link had to hold his head while he laughed at that, his shoulders shaking from mirth. That sense of humor they shared would be enough to cheer up the reception at a funeral. And that was kind of odd considering how serious she could be in contrast, and it was clear to him, which she preferred.

"What are you up to later?" He found himself asking, and wondered exactly what had induced this question. _Oh Goddesses, what am I doing?_

He didn't notice Aurea's thoughtful expression. "After the breakfast rush, I have some chores to do, band then the lunch rush. Other than that I have the afternoon off, why?" She asked as she let her eyes settle back on him curiously.

"I was just thinking." He stopped himself a moment to consider all possible consequences of his actions. Would she slap him silly, jump up and down like a maniac, or just look at him like he had lobsters coming out of his ears? Link took a breath, preparing for the worst. "Do you know how to use a bow?" There was utter silence for a moment before a wide grin split the mask of surprise and confusion on her face.

"Me using a bow, that's rich!" she laughed so hard that she wheezed.

"Why's that?"

"Are you kidding? I'd be more of a danger to myself than anything else!" she still went on laughing, but for the life of him, Link couldn't understand what was so funny.

"I could teach you." That made her stop laughing abruptly, but only for a few seconds.

"Now I know you're insane." She said shaking her head. "There is no way I'll ever try to pick up a bow, not gonna happen."

Link was giving her a look that suggested he was thinking something along the lines of, "Oh really, you think so?"

Some time around the early afternoon Aurea was still wondering how she had let the elf talk her into something so mad. She didn't even know if she had the necessary amount of Rupees to buy a bow, let alone any arrows. The stash of tips she'd been saving from dinners and her performances hard accumulated, but she still hadn't counted any of it; she really hadn't had the time with everything else going on. So now here she was, sitting in her room separating the gems and counting them up. It took longer than she had thought, but it was worth it, especially when she came to the total value. In the course of something like two and a half weeks, she had earned a total of 759 Rupees, more than enough for a bow and some arrows as long as she didn't break them all on the first try. Just as she gathered them back into a bag, not her backpack, there came a knock on the door. Aurea hesitated for a moment.

"Just a moment." She called over her shoulder. Quickly stuffing the bag and its contents into the space under her bed and behind her backpack. Brushing the dist from her jeans, she stood and opened the door, surprised to see the barkeeper there.

"Busy this afternoon?" he asked none too courteously she though.

"Yes." She said shortly. "Why?"

"The Emperor has requested to see you." Aurea blinked and looked clueless.

"Say that again?" She said stiffly

"The Emperor has requested to see you." The barkeeper repeated irritably.

"Wait I thought Hyrule had a royal family. You know a King, a Queen, a princess." She said still looking confused, and now definitely suspicious.

"We used to." The barkeeper sighed, and shook his head. "But that changed two years ago." Aurea was almost started to see the man looking depressed.

"Why happened?" She asked, feeling the old need to know resurfacing. But this time there was something else along with it, a growing sense of dread. Something wasn't right about all this.

"Well, the king died several years ago, and for a time the council ruled. Nobody was really very happy about it, but the princess was still just a little girl, so what could be done?" He shrugged and shifted his weight from foot to foot, clearly uncomfortable with the discussion. "About two years ago she came of age to claim her place as the rightful ruler of this kingdom. But…" The elderly barkeep pulled an overlarge hanky from his back pocket and blew his nose with a sound like an elephant. "Sorry," He said gruffly, which might've been hiding a choked sound of pain. "But it's that sad. Not even a month after she became the official ruler, she died." He shook his head again, his old eyes on the aging wooden floor.

Aurea was staring at him with eyes as wide as coins. _Zelda's DEAD?_ How could it be possible? Clearing her throat, because it seemed to have developed a hard lump in it, she asked, "How did she die?" She asked, and the image of Link crying in his sleep came unbidden to the surface of her mind's eye.

"A fever." He sounded choky again. "Nobody saw it coming. She never had a serious illness in her life before that." The elephantine sound of the barkeeper blowing his nose bounced off the wooden walls again. Normally, she would have still been too socked at this little comment, but for some reason, it seemed to stick out in her mind.

"Never? Not even as a kid?"

"Nope. She was made to rule." He said and sounded as if he had lost a daughter of his own. "She knew how to live the right life." He lamented. It was a few minutes before he was composed again. "So," He cleared his throat. "You going to get going then?"

"What?" Aurea had been in deep thought for those few empty minutes and was brought back to reality with an unpleasant bump.

"To see the Emperor like he asked?" The barkeeper elaborated.

"Oh, uh…" Thinking fast, the obvious excuse came to her. "Not today. I've just got too much to do." She shooed him out before he could make any kind of protest and fished the moneybag back out from under the bed. It was probably safest to just leave the rest of her stuff here for now, since nobody here would really know what to do with any of it, and would therefore leave it alone. In a dash fit to win a hundred-meter sprint, she was down the stairs and out the back door. Once outside, she thanked her lucky stars she'd chosen the back exit, because for some reason, there were what appeared to be guards in armor and carrying tall spears waiting at the front entrance of the Inn. Feeling the need to put distance between herself and them, she was gone in a matter of seconds, if even that much.

Link was waiting as patiently as possible, which wasn't very, and wondering what in the world could be taking her so long. After much persuasion on his part, they had agreed to meet at a small potion shop near the gates that lay between the Market Place and Hyrule Field. Link had logically figured that this would be the easiest place to meet since everyone would be so busy with whatever they were doing that the two would go unnoticed. Also it would be pretty easy for each of them to spot the other. Hardly anyone in the Market Place wore quite so much green as he, and he couldn't think of any hylian female that would wear pants like she did. The only real problem this purposed was that in order to find her, he had to keep his gaze somewhat low, which consequently got him smacked around more than once. So with a slight throbbing in his cheek rather than his head, the young blond focused his ocean-colored gaze on the direction in which he knew the Inn lay. But he was nothing short of astonished at what happened next. Someone brushed up against his side, and his attention was diverted for a moment. Then he looked again at the person. It was Aurea, right there looking up at him with a flushed face, and out of breath, unless his ears were deceiving him. Even so, she looked a little strange, stranger than usual that is. Beneath the flushed color of her cheeks, she seemed a good deal paler than was healthy.

"Aurea what-?" she didn't say anything, but just shushed him and pulled him over to a more secluded corner, between a stone wall and the rough edges of a wooden building next to it. For some reason he couldn't figure out, she put her right hand to the back of his head, embedding it in his hair and brought his face very close to hers. If they weren't cheek-to-cheek, then it was close enough. Link could feel the heat rise up in his face and hear the blood rushing in his ears. He put his hands firmly on her shoulders, not sure if he was going to push her away or draw her closer. But he was spared the decision by her voice, very quiet in his right ear.

"Just keep quiet and listen to me." She hissed. "I've got something to tell you that'll make every hair on your head stand up." And at the sound of definite fear in her voice, all thoughts of potential romance fled his mind.

They stayed that way, in that exact position while people came and went, occasionally glancing their way, but only shaking their heads and either smiling or frowning with disapproval. It was a good thing Link's face was hidden from view, given how they were standing, because his own eyes wend as wide as plates and nearly all the color drained from his face. She had told him everything. Everything that had happened in his absence since this morning, she told him. She had been at least partially right; the prickling sensation on the back of his neck told him so, or maybe that was the feeling of her fingernails; he was too occupied with her words to notice the difference between the two just now.

"You're sure the Emperor sent for you?" He replied and let his hands lips to her upper arms now, as a pair of middle-aged men walked past with their eyes directed none too subtly on Aurea's figure.

"There were guards waiting at the front to the Inn, wearing armor and carrying spears." She hissed again, and Link found it difficult to repress a shudder at the feeling, serious though the situation had become. "How many people send that with a message?" Link cast his eyes around quickly to make sure nobody was paying attention, then turned Aurea around and gave a gentle shove in one direction. "What are y-?"

"Quiet." He said in a low, though sharp voice. "Just keep moving." On any other day, Aurea would have stopped, put her hands on her hips and made him tell her what the hell was going on. But since her nerves were already a little too ragged, she complied without any complaint.

A half hour later, Aurea was beginning to wonder if Link was giving her the silent treatment.

_ How juvenile._ She thought as she watched him select a bow from the wall of the weapon's tent they were in. It was odd to watch him string it with ease and test the string, pulling it back, almost to his ear. It was even stranger to see all this and be thinking the way she was just now. His face had not lost that stern, maybe even furious look it held as he handed over the necessary amount from the bow and several good arrows. When that was done, he unstrung the bow and slung it over his back, grabbing her by the hand and practically dragging her out as they left. This was stupid. Aurea hated being treated like some wayward, disobedient child, and his persistent, angry silence was getting on her nerves, which were close to the snapping point. When she finally caught sight of four round targets set up against a stone wall, she ripped her hand out of his and smacked him hard on the shoulder to get his attention. It worked. Link looked back at her, his blue eyes still blazing like the sunlight off the purest glacial snow. "You wanna tell me what your problem is?" she growled, daring him to challenger her. "You've been moody ever since I told you what was going on and acting like I've killed a puppy or something. So tell me, what the hell's the matter?" Her cheeks were flushed again, whether from fury or embarrassment, Link couldn't tell, but he knew which it probably was given her little eruption. That stern look was still on his face, and for a moment, Aurea felt a chill run the length of her spine. It was really kind of scary seeing someone usually so calm, if not friendly, looking like he might just take your head off by merely glancing at you. But then, to her enormous relief, he sighed and handed her the new bow, muttering something about "bad memories." Aurea couldn't believe herself. How in the name of all things sacred could she forget Link waking her up only the previous night, while he cried in his sleep about Zelda? _GAH! I'm such a bitch._ She though, and wanted to say something, to apologize for being so harsh.

"String your bow." Link said calmly, if distantly, as he did so with his own.

"Uh…" She didn't have a clue how to do it, and Link had already strung his so fast that she missed anything that might've been useful. Link looked up from testing the string of his bow and stared at her with perplexity.

"Don't you know how?" he asked then received a wry look from her.

"I told you I didn't know anything about archery." She said exasperatedly. But a smirk finally broke through the hardened mask he had put on all that time.

"No, you said you'd be a danger to yourself." He corrected and laughed a bit when she pouted with one eyebrow arched in irritation. With a sigh, and still smiling, he unstrung his bow and showed her how to bend the frame properly, and make sure the string was hooked into the groove correctly. Aurea couldn't see for the life of her how having one end of it between her lower legs was supposed to give her any kind of leverage in this situation. Nevertheless, she gave it a try. A sharp TWANG and a THUD later, she found herself lying belly-down on the ground, wondering yet again how she'd ever let herself get talked into this. The blond man next to her was standing with his weight on one foot and his right hand supporting his left elbow while his left hand rested a little too tightly over his mouth.

"Don't you say a word." Aurea snapped as she tried and failed to get up, since her legs were still tangled in the bow and its string. After another two attempts with the same results as the first, she got it right and checked to make sure the string was in the groove and nothing was amiss. Still smirked, Link handed her an arrow.

"Know what to do?" He asked, and she gave him an Oh-please-I'm-not-that-stupid look. He watched her string the arrow, correcting here and there. Everything form her stance to her drawback was awful, the sign of a true beginner. When she let the arrow fly, it fell short of the target by about ten feet. Link could only roll his eyes, since she would have probably noticed anything else. Even when he had first tried this, he had not been that bad, she really had no clue what she was doing. He came up behind her and placed his arms over hers, startling her for a second; he could tell by the little "Eep!" that escaped her, and the way she went stiff as a board. Correcting her stance, her placement of hands, and grip was easy enough. Once that had been done, he stepped back and handed her another arrow, instructing her to try again. This time was better; at least she hit the target. But her aim needed a good deal of work, because she only hit the outermost rim of the thing. "Try aiming." He remarked jokingly, and the smirk on his face widened when she gave him that you're-not-helping kind of smile. She took much longer this time, but when she finally released the strong, the arrow sailed neatly into the outermost rim of the bull's-eye this time. "Better." Link said approvingly. "But you took too long."

"Oh give me a break." Aurea sighed irritably. "Everything takes time; I'm not going to master this overnight." She pointed out as she picked up another arrow to try again. Link stood next to her just shaking his head and trying none to hard to refrain from looking smug. This was one thing he could definitely do that she couldn't, and it seemed sort of funny. Just then, something had apparently tickled her nose, because she sneezed, and accidentally let the arrow fly in the process. There was a satisfying THOCK as the arrow hit the target again. The young hylian blinked once, then twice. He walked over to the target and stared for a second. Aurea had hit a dead-center bull's eye, and hanging limply from her arrow was his hat. Link could hear her trying not to snort in laughter behind him as he pulled both his arrow and his hat from the target. After removing the other arrows and walking back over to his pupil, he carefully pulled his hat off the offending dart. Aurea was finding it damn near impossibly not to giggle as she watched the Hero of Time examine the two new holes in the end of his green cap by passing a finger through them.

"I think that's enough for one day." Link said slowly as if still lost in his own bewildered thoughts.

"Oh c'mon, I think I'm getting the hang of it." Aurea couldn't resist it any longer and laughed at the expression on his face. Still snickering, she notched another arrow into place took aim and let it fly. It hit on the bull's eye this time, but not the very center. "If I ever end up splitting one of these with another, I'm gonna take it home and frame it." She laughed, while Link still stared at his hat in shock. He liked his hat too damn it.

Eventually the afternoon had worn itself out into a sunset and the two made their way back to the Inn.

"You staying for dinner?" Aurea asked him as she carried her bow across her shoulder, the same way he did. Link only nodded at first, until she snapped her fingers under his nose as she had done that morning at breakfast.

"Hunh?" he said absently.

Aurea smiled a bit. "You staying here tonight?" She asked; they had just now reached the Inn. Link heaved a sigh.

"Yeah, I better." After all, it was better than trying to fend off the living dead stuff that crept up in the middle of the night, especially since he didn't have Navi around as a source of light anymore. When her mission was done, she had gone back to, what was now all that was left of the Great Deku Tree, the Deku Sprout.

"What would you like for dinner?" He was surprised when he heard Aurea ask him this. But nevertheless his hunger had easily won out with a loud rumbly growl that would've shamed a thunderstorm.

"What kinds of potatoes are there tonight?" He asked, then paused and added, "And what about some mushrooms?"

"Why don't I just grill you a heifer while I'm at it?" And that made them both laugh.

"Oh yes, do!" That made them laugh even harder.

I should like to say here: Thanks again to all who reviewed. And a special thanks to my archery buddy Alison who has proven an invaluable source of inspiration throughout this grand mess we (That is, me and the voices in my head) call a fan fiction. Just giving credit where credit is due. Thanks for reading!


	5. Hang In There

CHP5

Link had to admit, even though he doubted the reliability of the plan, it definitely worked; at least it had worked thus far. With the Emperor's guards still looking for her everyday, and being none too subtle about it, Aurea had found a way to avoid them without really leaving the Inn. Apart from keeping her ears covered with that odd bandana, and staying mostly out of sight, whenever they came poking around, she would simply slip away. If she was in the kitchen, she slip outside and hid in the stables until they left. If she was upstairs she found a way to climb out the window of her room and up onto the roof, from where she was able to see them leave. To the young hylian, it seemed a mix of madness and carnival slight-of-hand.

_And she only has to slip up once before they catch her._ Link couldn't help thinking. There was a great deal of curiosity as to why the Emperor would want to see someone from the market place. And as always, rumors were flying faster than fire on a windy day. Some held that he was looking for an official wife, while others said he just wanted another whore. The political tem was concubine, but nobody in the market really used it, since it was obvious what the women in his harem where there for, and why they agreed to it. The young blond found himself hoping that Aurea knew better than to pass those gates; then he found himself wondering why he cared again. _It's not like I'm courting her right?_ The fact that he had to ask himself this was proof enough that, whatever he told himself, he really did give a damn about her. Another three weeks had passed, and he had yet again yielded to the temptation to see and talk to her again. No words Link could think of really described why he wanted to be near her and hear her laugh like she did. Maybe it was the fact that Aurea's laughter and sense of humor were just so contagious, but he doubted that alone was it. It was a strange attraction to say the least, but there it was. Walking over the cobblestones, guiding Epona behind him, Link was surprised when he found himself at the stables just in time to see a white bandana and a long brown-and-gold braid whip around the wooden corner of the stables. He looked towards the Inn entrance and sure enough, there were about three guards standing in armor and spears, and looking rather disgruntled. Being more careful than usual, Link led Epona into the stables with a small smirk on his lips. He found Aurea squatting down, her face a mixture of pale and flushed colors, the result of a bad shock and its aftermath. She was staring straight at him and looking both relived and a touch annoyed.

"Will you not sneak up on me?" she hissed in a whisper, then rearranged herself to peer over the side of the stable. "I'm really high-strung right now."

"I noticed." He muttered, keeping his voice low so as not to draw any attention. But she shushed him again, and he heeded her this time, but it was mostly because he wanted to eavesdrop a little.

"Listen fellas," the Barkeeper was saying in a pleadingly high tone of voice. "She's very temperamental. The last time you came calling she refused to sing that night and we lost a lot of business."

"Pal I feel for ya," said one of the guards, with enough honey in his voice as to be sickeningly condescending. "But we have our orders from the Emperor himself. What are we gonna do when we have to come back again empty-handed?"

"Look," The barkeeper tried again, not wanting to bring down the wrath of the Emperor. "I'll talk to her tonight, see if I can convince her to go along with it, but for the love of the Goddesses don't hang around here so much." He cast his eyes around and Aurea ducked to avoid being seen. "If she knows you've been looking for her again, and I talk to her about it tonight, she'll say no and that'll be the end of that."

"Oh really?" Said another of the guards shifting his weight to one side and folding his metal-clad arms.

"Now I don't want any trouble; I just want to deal with this as quietly as possible."

"Fine." The first guard relented. "But if tomorrow comes and nothing's changed, we'll drag her out kicking and screaming if we have to." That said, they turned towards the stables, and with a squeak of terror, Aurea had buried herself in a tall mess of hay to one side.

_Oh for the love of… Did she practice doing that?_ Link wondered, hearing the guards approach. Hastily grabbing a stiff brush, and trying not to look in any way suspicious, started to brush the mare.

"Think his royal pain-in-the-ass will let us have her when he's done?" One of the men snickered as they entered the stables and found their own horses.

"I shouldn't hold my breath if I were you." Another one snorted, shaking his head. "You know what he's like with his women; the only way he let's them leave is if they snuff it."

"What a pity." Said the third one idly. "Some of them are damned tempting aren't they?" The three of them laughed in agreement. There was a steady pulsating motion going behind Link's left temple now, causing his eyebrow to twitch.

"You there!" It took a lot of self-control to not make a stupid remark that would likely land him in prison. Link would have dearly loved to say 'yes, me here, you there,' in the grunting voice of a wild-man. But he restrained himself, knowing better. "Look at an imperial guard when he speaks to you." The man barked, and with a sigh that only seemed to magnify his irritation, Link looked around at him. "You seen anyone unusual around here lately?"

Link was sorely tempted to say 'Define unusual.' But what was the point in annoying them, especially when they probably wouldn't get it anyway. So he simply replied, "No." his voice flat and uninterested.

"You're sure?" The second one asked as he mounted his own horse. "No strangely dressed women hanging about?"

"You might ask some of the prostitutes." Link said pointedly. "When it comes to women, there's only so much a man really needs to notice, am I right?" They laughed, thank Farore and on that note, departed. Link waited until they had turned another corner beyond his range of vision. Then he tossed the grooming brush to one side and shoved one hand into the pile of hay. About 3.578 seconds later he was lying on his back feeling the sharp sting in his left cheek pulse similarly to that of his eyebrow twitch.

"You wanna warn me the next time you do that?" Aurea hissed as she rose from the hay like some bad attempt of a monster in a cheesy horror flick. Ordinarily, she would've been more bothered by the stray bits of straw clinging here and there on her clothes and in her hair, but she was too irate just now.

Needless to say, Link learned a valuable lesion that day: _Never grab or grope unless you can see what it is you're grabbing._ It was either follow this advice, or run the risk of Aurea slapping so hard his face fell off. He didn't have any desire to think about the latter, seeing as how it left a sick sensation in his stomach.

Aurea was busy picking the straw from her person now, and made and angry sound in her throat, not unlike that of a cat's growl. "I'm gonna lose my marbles, I swear!" She was ranting while pulling the bandana from her hair to fix it properly again. She kept on about how this whole situation was completely ludicrous, and Link could only lie there like a green, hylian rug and watch her. It was strange to think that he had nearly forgotten how different she looked without the odd head covering in its usual place. But maybe it wasn't that strange since she always kept it on, even around him, and only removed it to sleep as far as he knew. He had a sudden image of her sitting in a bathtub, naked, and still wearing that ridiculous bandana. A faint blush touched his face at that thought. But as there was still a red hand-shaped mark there too, it was difficult to notice. It wasn't until he noticed her hand waving slowly back and forth in front of his eyes that he blinked and realized he'd been staring. "C'mon, I didn't hit you that hard." Aurea muttered, trying not to look concerned, which resulted in her looking agitated instead.

Some time later, after a good six round of archery practice, the two sat at the little battered table in the kitchen eating dinner. It was nothing too complex, just a good-sized sandwich for each of them with water for Aurea and wine as usual for Link.

"You oughtta be careful with that." Aurea remarked as he took a long drink. "Remember what happened last time?"

"Up to a point." Link gave a lopsided, guilty grin. There was a long silence that followed this, during which they ate quietly, glancing at each other every now and again. "Are you feeling alright?" Link asked, startling her slightly, if that little jump was any indication. The meal thus far had been conducted in such a subdued atmosphere that it made him worry. By her standards, this was not normal behavior.

"I'm fine, just…" she let her voice trail off as she stared at her sandwich, but wasn't really seeing it.

"Just what?" Aurea sighed with something like resignation at this. She had the distinct feeling that this was one issue Link would not willingly drop. Maybe if she tied him upside-down for a while; but it was too much effort to try something like that, as funny as it would have undoubtedly been.

"I don't know." She heaved another sigh and set the nearly finished sandwich down. "There's just something about this that I just don't understand." Resting her elbows on the scrubbed wooden surface and letting the heels of her hands set themselves against her forehead, she looked petulant.

"What's that?" Link asked, trying to at least seem calm, hoping that she might relax a little too. It was somehow unnerving to see someone usually so strong showing a weakness, even though he himself was capable of it. A memory came to mind then, a picture from nine years ago. Zelda, not as an adult, but as a child of maybe ten, was looking at him. Her gentle features were marred only by the frown and worry displayed there, and with the nervous wringing motions of her hands.

"Granted for a minute," Aurea's gentle alto voice brought him back to reality, with less shock than usual. "I'm not normal for this place. I mean I stick out in more than one way." She gestured with one hand as if this was everyday chatter, while the other supported her chin. "Why does the so-called Emperor want to see me?" She let her free hand fall to the table with a flop and watched her companion, half-expecting a smart-assed remark. And as sure as the sun sets in the west, she was right.

"So people here are actually making an effort to keep rumors from you now?" The young male asked, a bit sarcastically, but did not smile at it. In truth he was worried too, but that was mostly because he knew what people were saying; that and the overheard conversation this afternoon had done nothing to abate these poking issues.

"No," Aurea sighed and looked a little aggravated. "They haven't bothered to keep their voices down. Which means either they don't know it's me, or they don't give a damn either way." So she knew what the scuttlebutt around the local society was, but it still didn't seem to have answered her questions at all.

But there was one theory Link had, and was loathe to admit it. Among other things, they had talked a good deal about politics and what was right and wrong. Aurea had a very clear definition in her mind as to right and wrong, and a lot of what she deemed right was, by proclamation of the Emperor, very wrong indeed. For example, she didn't see anything wrong with holding a peaceful protest against some policy or other of the system. Link had been fascinated by the 'Freedoms' her people were allowed and theirs were not. Where she was from, protesting in this manner was allowed, and more over encouraged, since its main objective was to bring about change in a peaceful manner. But she had also explained when certain freedoms were denied to an individual, which usually had to do with said individual putting others in danger or breaking some rather reasonable laws. There were times, once or twice, when Link wondered if Aurea was making it all up. True that the late King had always said openly and often that if anyone had a problem with the politics, they were free to come to him and discuss the issue, and more over they were free from fear of incarceration. Nowadays in Hyrule, things were really what Aurea referred to as a 'Dictatorship.' Based on what she told him describing this kind of government, Link whole-heartedly agreed. The signs were all there: One person with supreme authority, things run in a generally militant style, no governmental body put in place to stop him, and the little amount of delegated power going to his closest and most trusted allies. Hylians no longer had the right to point out problems the system had. The second they did so, they would be arrested for treason, or else defamatory remarks against the Emperor. And as things currently stood the general living situation for most people, the middle and lower class, was on the decline, since all the power now rested with the elite and upper class. There was no representative to argue for the majority of the people now, and Aurea had remarked more than once that this pattern smacked of revolution. Knowing all of this, Link had to wonder…

"Maybe it's because of how you think?" He suggested, hoping he was dead wrong on this one. Aurea seemed to come out of a trance at this statement and stared at him for a moment, one eyebrow arched in confusion.

"Meaning what?"

"You're thoughts on politics, philosophy, the like." Link leaned back in his seat and watched her with a thoughtful expression. "Could he have heard?"

"Not likely." She said frowning at the burn mark on the table. "You're the only one I've told, so…unless…" She trailed off and looked as if someone had just narrowly missed her head with an arrow. It was not really a scared looked, but rather shocked, as if she'd been struck by more than just lightning.

"What? What's wrong?" Link said then sat up abruptly, the front two legs of his chair snapping off as they hit the ground, thus depositing him under the table after banging his chin against the hard wooden surface. _Sometimes I really hate my life._ He grumbled to himself as he pushed himself off the floor with a groan. Then he cursed as the back of his head hit the underside of the table with an audible CLOP sound. Giving up on getting up, he just sat on his rear for a minute rubbing the back of his head with one hand while touching the tender spot on his chin with the other.

"Furniture really doesn't like you does it?" Aurea remarked as she leaved over to look under the table at him. Then felt a bit sympathetic and sat down there too. Her fingers lightly brushed the sore spot on his chin and Link jerked back slightly. "Sorry!" Aurea said quickly, worried that she'd hurt him even worse if possible.

"It's nothing, don't worry." If truth be told, Link was not really embarrassed by her concern for him, on the contrary, it was nice to know she cared. But he wouldn't tell her that, he couldn't.

"Yeah you're just peachy after falling off your chair and hitting your head twice." She shook her head, the long hair waving.

"I've got a pretty hard head." By the time he realized what he'd said, it was too late; she was already giggling, and still shaking her head. "What were we talking about?" Link asked to change the subject. It took Aurea a minute to calm down, but at last she managed it.

"I think it was politics and why the Emperor wants to see me, or something like that?" She said a little uncertain, she had just suffered a severe distraction.

"Yeah, and you said you didn't think he'd know what you think." This was getting more than a little convoluted to Link's dazed brain, but still he sort of kept up.

"Oh yeah, I remember now." Said Aurea, the light of reflection and remembrance dawning on her at last. But just as quickly as it had come, it was gone again; an in its place rested apprehension. Aurea looked around at the two doors and at the one window before she dared to speak again, though in a nearly inaudible voice. "If I haven't told anyone but you, and you haven't told anyone, then that means someone's been eavesdropping."

"But we would've heard-." He began but was sharply cut off.

"C'mon, who checks for anyone listening when it's just casual conversation?" Well she had a point there. Neither of them had expected than anyone might make the effort to keep their ears open while they where just talking about this that and the other. It was just talk, and not ever real serious talk at that. But try convincing those in power of such a truth, and they may as well write out their last wills.

"So," Link cast his own azure eyes around to make sure there was no spy upon them. "Any idea who it might be?"

"Maybe the Barkeeper was gossiping and didn't realize what he was doing." Aurea said doubtfully. "But that really doesn't make much sense, because then, there goes his entertainment and the money that brings in." She pointed out.

"Very true." But Link with remembering the conversation between the Barkeeper and the imperial guards that afternoon.

"Besides," Aurea added. "He's been helping me avoid the goon-squad, and I can't think why he'd help me out if he's just going to turn me in." That was a good point. From any angle one looked at it, there was really no way for the Barkeeper to gain much, if anything from this scenario.

"Well then? Who was is?" Link wondered aloud, he head starting to hurt again from hitting so many mental blocks as well as the table.

Aurea looked at the odd band on her wrist she called a 'watch.' "I don't know, but I have to go change now."

"What for?" Link probably didn't know it, but he was kind of cute, even adorable when he was confused, or more accurately, confused and not angry.

"I'm performing tonight like I do nearly every night." She reminded him with a smirk. Then she stood from under the table and Link just sat there for a minute, watching her brush the dust from her legs. Then he could see her face again as she leaned down to his level. "If you want to wake up with a memory of the evening's events, I suggest you either keep an eye on your drink, or just leave it here." That said, she left him there sitting under the table, wondering why he would probably end up taking her advice.

After weaving this way and that through the mass of bodies, chairs and tables, Link finally found a seat for himself and settled in, hoping to high heaven that the local prostitute population would just do the smart thing and leave him be. The last time he'd missed quite a lot of the show and wanted to see it this time. For the moment, everything seemed just fine, meaning of course that they either had yet to spot him, or they were wisely avoiding him. In a way, he hoped it was the latter, since that would most likely mean their avoidance of him would continue for a while, if not forever. And, he had chosen, for the sake of his well-being, to leave his drink in the kitchen; his thoughts had turned a tad paranoid about whether or not he should retrieve it and risk being drugged, or worse poisoned. The general population of Hyrule was pretty harmless, but there were a few snakes in the grass that wanted him dead, that was inevitable.

The whole of the dining area went almost completely silent when the first soft notes floated from the piano. A sharper light came up and focused on a velvet-clad form. Aurea's long brown-and-gold tresses were artfully pinned up so that her ears were still hidden, but the long waves rolled gently down her shoulders and… Link was surprised to note that his throat and lips had gone very dry, and swallowed hard, trying to restore the proper flow; his tongue passed over his parched lips. The dress Aurea wore, as she sat on the edge of the piano, was made of blue velvet, so deep in hue as to look purple and black as well, depending on how the light fell. It seemed to swipe up from her chest over her left shoulder and wrapped around her neck only to come back down to her front again. A single, soft, pale white rose rested where the fabric around her neck rejoined the rest of the dress. The whole outfit, and the way she held herself was enough to draw several gasps from her audience, and not all of them were male. This elegant simplicity had the strangest effect on a person, as if they were seeing some ethereal being rather than a real living person.

With her head bent at a gentle angle, she started. "Little Lottie let her mind wander." The words were soft, the tune simple, but it was so haunting as to be a little eerie too. "Little Lottie thought 'Am I fonder of dolls," she lifted her head just slightly and opened her eyes in an almost dazed, dreamy manner, like the calm of the lightest breeze thought the woods in the morning. "'Or of goblins or shoes? Or of riddles or frocks? Or of chocolate?'" A smile so gentle as to be a little sly curved the pink-rose lips. And to everyone's surprise, she spoke rather than sang for a moment. "Father playing the violin, as we read to each other dark stories of the north." And now she looked up as if some light only she could see, like the warmth from the sun, enveloped her. The music to a lighter tone now too. "'Know what I love best?' Lottie said, 'Is when I'm asleep in my bed, and the Angel of Music sings songs in my head.'" A change came in the key of the bewitching melody, but it only lasted a moment. "The Angel of Music sings songs in my head…" The last word faded.

Link felt as if an ice cube had been dropped down the back of his shirt and ran all the way down his spine. He shivered, and his skin tingled with pins and needles at the otherworldliness of it all. All was a deadly quiet, but that died swiftly as well. Another series of gentle though warmer notes sounded from the piano now and Aurea lifted her head to give a smile that was almost sad, to her audience. "Think of me; think of me fondly, when we've said goodbye." Now this was definitely lighter than the last one. While the other had placed a kind of chill around them all, this song seemed to have the reverse effect, as though she were sending away the cold she had summoned. "Remember me, once in a while. Please promise me you'll try."

Link took in a breath that he didn't know he'd been holding. He leaned slightly back in his seat and relaxed again. "When you find, that once again you long, to take your heart back and be free, if you ever find a moment, spare a though for me." The music changed again, and it seemed to the listeners that there was now a greater life in both themselves and the artist before them. "We never said, our love was evergreen, or as unchanging as the sea. But if you can still remember, stop and think of me."

"She could charm birds with a voice like that." Someone whispered, and was only answered by a half-dozen shushes.

"Think of all the things we've shared and seen. Don't think about the things which might have been." Now Aurea slid gracefully off the piano and stood as regal as any royalty her head high, her bearing erect and even proud.

Link was wondering about the lyrics as he took them in. They seemed kind of sad, as if she were saying goodbye, like she was dying, and not the least bit worried about that; only worried about being forgotten.

"Think of me, think of me waking, silent and resigned. Imagine me, trying to hard, to put you from my mind. Recall those days, look back on all those times, think of the things we'll never do. There will never be, a day when, I won't think of you." The audience was already clapping thinking she was done as the piano played the rich rolling cords on. "We never said, our love was evergreen, or as unchanging as the sea. But if you can still remember, stop and think…" There was a very pregnant pause, then an escalating series of staccato notes, before the highest not of all. "Of," As she held the note for the proper timing of the song, the ringing of a few tiny glasses shattering, and a cork popping itself from a bottle could be heard, and only some people noticed. "Me." She held the last note until the pianist had played himself out, and they ended at the same moment. There was an immediate roar of applause and many stood up to clap. Aurea blushed visibly as a few whistles came through the ruckus as well. Rupees soared, flew, and pinged from every corner, and a few people could be seen touching a napkin or a handkerchief to their moistened eyes. She bowed respectfully, not enough to give anyone a bird's-eye view of her cleavage, and the spotlight dimmed and went out. The house lights came back up and Link could see, through the sea of bodies and haze of pipe-smoke, that Aurea had gathered her earnings, and was heading for the stairs. But he could also see the trouble she was having, since several men did not want to let her pass just yet. The young blond sighed and a tired kind of smile touched his face. Being attractive was both a blessing and a curse for her. So, naturally thinking she could use some help, he made his way over to where she was barred from her escape. The words that met his ears were not exactly pleasant, and Link did not register the fact that his muscles had grown tense from it.

"Lady really, a flower such as yourself should not be cursed to waste such talents in a mere bar." One man was saying to her. "If you could only bring your unique talents into my house, then-."

"My dear I could pay you easily five times as much as you have here." Someone else cut in. "And it would be such a relief to my son to see a creature of such beauty and joy again. He would-."

"Sweet Lady, your voice has enchanted me beyond all reasoning." Said yet another, swooping in, like some bird of prey towards her. "You would do me no end of honor if-." But before he could finish, Aurea turned and her vivid green eyes locked for a second with Link's. She smiled, and he returned it as he came closer. Several of her male admirers looked annoyed that she was paying far more attention to this young man, a commoner of base birth at best when compared to themselves, they being middle, if not upper class of society. Link took one of her soft slender hands in his, bent over and kissed it. The gesture was elegant, especially from what most considered a commoner, but the other men around Aurea were surprised when she smiled the most genuinely to him. Link straightened up again and beamed at her, his grin smug to say the least.

"How are you Lady?" He asked politely.

Aurea pretended to giggle as eh brought the hand he had kissed to her mouth. "Very well thank you." She said, just as politely back to him.

"Gentlemen if you please." Link said as he took Aurea's hand again as if to lead her away from them.

"And if we don't please?" Said one of them sarcastically. A few snickers followed this, but stopped dead when the noticed the sudden stiffening of lovely woman's features.

"Gentlemen," She said, and there was not trace of warmth left in her tone now. "Excuse me." She allowed Link to play out leading her up the stairs and into her room, just in case. Once the door was closed again she let out a breath. "Crimany." She sighed irritably while Link leaned against the door, chuckling and shaking his head. "Just tell me one thing, just one thing." He looked up, trying not to smirk. "Why do they always look at me like I'm dinner?" she asked, though it was not really meant as a question. It was rhetorical and meant as a kind of insult.

After an outburst of laughter Link regained himself enough to speak coherently. "Well, it could be the fact that you sing so well, you cook like no one else can, and you're beautiful." At that last compliment, Aurea froze and looked around at him with eyes as wide as saucers. "What?" Link asked, ready to spring aside if she lunged or something.

"Now I have serious concerns for your mental health." She said and then laughed. "Besides, you left out the fact that they're all dirty old men."

Link snorted at this. "So am I." He remarked, still catching his breath.

"You're a dirty _young_ man, there's a difference." She replied, dumping the excessive amount of rupees on the bed. He laughed again at this comment, shaking his head. She really did have a knack for making him laugh. "Could you turn to the door please?" Aurea asked, smiling as she picked up her usual clothes again. Feeling less than compelled to do so, Link turned to the wooden door, and tried to concentrate on the pattern of the wood while hearing the rustle of the female's clothes nearby. It wasn't easy. Then again, if he turned around now, he might just wake up to find it was two weeks later than he remembered it being.

"You can look now," she said and he instantly turned about. "You shameless pervert." She added, smirking.

"Hey, I do have some sense of shame." He shot back, his pride only slightly wounded.

"Sure you do; once you're caught red-handed." She remarked. Link would have probably come up with some sharper reply, but a sound on the stairs outside stopped him. His head turned automatically his ears pricked, waiting for the sound again. CLINK CLANK CLUNK was the sound of metal on the stairs. Blue eyes darted around the room looking for somewhere, anywhere that Aurea to hide. The only possibility was under the bed, and the sure as hell didn't have enough space for a full-grown adult. "What-?" Aurea never got the rest of her question out when Link's hand covered her mouth and the other hand came up to his own face, one finger up to his lips, signing her to be silent. She could only nod, then looked and listen.

To her utter shock, Link was suddenly very close and his voice breathed in her ear in a barely audible whisper. "Window." It was all he said before pushing her towards it, while hiding her small fortune beneath the bed, where the candlelight could not reach. Aurea had looked puzzled, but was out the window and hanging onto the side of the building when a loud pounding came on the door of the room. "Alright, ALRIGHT!" Link yelled from inside, checking once over his shoulder to make sure Aurea could not be seen. For a second he was stunned; she was not only invisible, the window was nearly closed, to make it look like she had never been in the small room in the first place. He breathed again thinking, _She's too good at this._ Link hoped to the Goddesses that he looked angry enough as he opened the door. "What?" he snapped as rudely as if he'd just been woken from the best kind of dream way before the crack of dawn. He was, not surprised to find himself faced with three imperial guards, though not the same ones that had been around this afternoon. Link did not falter, remembering his fury from the other lackeys' comments earlier that day.

"We're looking for someone, may we come in?" Asked one, clearly establishing himself as the little group's representative. Link stood his ground and put on fist against the doorframe.

"That depends." He said, meaning to sound tough, something he could command when he was especially angry. But that was the only time it worked for real. "What do you guys want?" he said after a minute, forcing himself to sound grudgingly reasonable.

"We're looking for this woman." Said the leader again, pushing past Link and into the room. The man looked around, as if he could detect some hidden space or trapdoor or something. "She's about yay high," He gestured with his hand while looking at the corner of the room by the head of the bed. "Fair skinned, green eyes, really long light-brown hair, kinda temperamental." Link had to actually bite the inside of his cheek to keep from so much as smiling at that last remark. "And," the man added turning back to Link as if this information were gravely important. "She's got the mark of the Triforce of power on her right hand." So it was clear beyond all shadow of doubt; they were looking for Aurea. But Link merely leaned against the wall by the door, and folded his arms over his chest.

"That's one impressive line of bullshit." Link remarked, rolling his head from side to side in a cocky manner. "Really, can't wait to see where it goes next." He added. The sarcasm wasn't really asked for by any means, but it helped emphasize that he was irritated, bloody clueless, and didn't give a damn anyway; all this basically meant he was worthless to them. "But what's this girl got to do with me?" he finally asked, as if anything they told him was barely worth his notice.

"Several people saw her come up here with you." The leader said, the smirk on his face a little too smug for the young blonde's liking.

Link cursed mentally but otherwise showed no sign of his fury. "Yeah, so?"

"Well where is she? She'd obviously not in here." The other two guards that still stood outside in the hall snickered like a pair of idiots in a comedy hour.

Link shrugged. "She came up here but left again." He said as if women came and went around him like birds came and went with the season.

"Any idea why?" The leader asked, clearly hoping Link would drop a hint by accident. But Link was smarter than they guessed.

"Said something about getting some fresh air." He smirked when they all looked as if they'd just been had. "Said she really hates pipe smoke; bad for her voice she said." That had clenched it for sure. The leader exchanged a look with the others in the hall muttered a thanks to Link and left, slamming the door hard behind him. Link tiptoed over to the door and listened for the CLINK CLANK CLUNK to fade all the way down the stairs. Once they had gone, he was by the window by the bed in two long strides, and threw the shutters open. He poked his head out and looked from the left to the right. There was Aurea, hanging onto the building by her hands, and keeping her position with her feet up against the wall too. It was hard to imagine that she was able to cling to the side of a building like that, but there it was right in front of him. Link reached out, thinking she might fall at any second. Aurea didn't hesitate in accepting his help as she slipped back through the window and into the room. Once the window was shut and locked into place again, they just sat on the bed for a few minutes.

"Some fresh air?" Aurea finally said with the kind of look that says "What the hell are you on?"

Link shrugged, with that shit-eating smirk he sometimes had. "They fell for it didn't they?" Aurea nodded, still looking as though she thought he was both brilliant and an eternal dumbass.

In the end, she just settled with shaking her head and saying, "You're nutty as a fruitcake Fairyboy." She smirked at the name, but Link could only stare at her. Only Malon, the redheaded girl of LonLon Ranch had ever called him that, and it had only ever been in affection. With Malon it was only a friendly nickname; with Aurea it seemed something she found more funny than affectionate, though he couldn't think why. After a minute or two had passed and her laughter had not abated, he became worried. He brought one of his arms up around her shoulders and hugged her a bit, his hand gripping around her shoulder carefully, securely. Her smile had become stiff and false, and he could see her lip twitch just before her hand came up to her face. What could be clearly identified as a tear rolled down her cheek and fell to her lap, creating a small dark dot on her blue jeans. Without a word Link's other arm came up around her and he pulled her closer, cradling her against his body, letting her tears soak through the right shoulder of his tunic and shirt. He could feel when they started to creep down the skin of his bicep; she was crying that hard, though the sobs were actually very soft. He guessed she was trying to stay as quiet as possible and not make a fuss. Link rocked her back and forth gently, rubbing up and down her back with his left hand, his right now around her waist. The young man didn't know what to say to comfort her, since he wasn't entirely sure what was wrong. Eventually, he just helped her lay down in the bed and after snuffing out the candle on the bedside table, tucked himself in next to her. Aurea curled up to him almost instantly, her right hand fisting itself in the front of his tunic, her eyes shut so tight as to look painful from his perspective. After what seemed like ages, her breathing evened out and finally stopped hiccupping. But if her facial expression was any indication, she was still being tortured in her dreams even if she was no longer crying her eyes out.

The damp section of Link's shirt and tunic stuck to his shoulder, and he didn't care. Wit his arms still around her, still holding her close, that relentless raven called guilt pecked at him. On the one hand, he felt like he was doing the right thing cradling her close like this, when she was clearly so vulnerable. Then again he was very aware of how she felt against his body. His mind would not let him forget that he had often wondered how Zelda would've felt in the same position. And even all guilt for his dead princess aside, he wondered if he was slowly replacing Zelda's place in his heart with Aurea, and that left a stung for both women. He had loved Zelda, though he had made the mistake of never telling her, and therefore felt this was the worst kind of insult to her memory. But it was no better than that towards the woman in his arms now, because she didn't deserve to be anyone's replacement, not even Zelda's. Two such women were special in their own rite, and in his mind neither could compare to nor replace the other.

The young man heaved a sigh as he curved his neck just enough to touch his lips to Aurea's forehead. His nose was full of the scent of her hair, and his own eyes stung as his circular thoughts refused to stop running the track in his head.


	6. A World of Pain

Sorry this chapter took so long, but I'be been freaking busy lately. As ever please review and let me kow what you think of this. I value the input of my readers. Enjoy!

Chapter 6

Returning to consciousness after a pained sleep, is never fun, and for Aurea it would have been all the worse; except that she was curled under warm covers and snuggled against something equally warm, though clearly more solid. Her eyes stayed shut though, a sign of denial, had there been anyone to see it. Memories of the previous night played liked muted television in her mind. And brought up the sorrow again, the pain, the loneliness. Being in a totally different society was definitely something she could handle, but being cut off completely from her family and friends was something she could not deal with easily. As much as she complained that nobody ever left her alone at home for more than five minutes, to be suddenly all alone with no contact at all was enough to scare the living hell out of her; not to mention this was probably harming her psychologically if she thought about it. There was a good chance this while experience had warped her mind completely. True she had always been catty, sarcastic, cynical and more besides, but now it had become more that just normal attitude wit her; now it was armor, the kind that refused to come loose.

Aurea's hand became a fist in some material, though she was not aware of the action until the fabric twisted in her hand enough to feel a tad painful. One bleary green eye peaked open, but there was little to see. The morning still had minutes to go before the first real light of dawn. Right now there was still the lingering haze of deep gray, which afforded little light. So of course it took a few moments to refocus and get used to the light, or lack thereof. She wasn't sure what she was looking at, but the feeling of her own breath bouncing back against her face told her that she was too close to whatever it was to see properly anyway. Trying to ease away proved useless as well, because when she tried to do so, something curled around her ribs and back tightened like a band of warm steel, though somehow gentler at the same time. Aurea tried to move again, and the same thing happened, though this time there was also a sleepy kind of grunt from somewhere near the top of her head, and whatever she was looking at shifted slightly.

_Aww Jesus H Christ, it's too early for this._ She mentally grumbled, now knowing what was lying next to her and hugging her so hard. Link, clearly, had fallen asleep still holding her. Although she was partially irritated at this, Aurea couldn't help the other side of it. In a way, she did feel comforted, like he may actually care. It wasn't a bad thing to think this every once in a while she just had to make sure not to put to much stock in it. Passing thoughts and fleeting sentiments, that's all they were. _Besides,_ She reminded herself. _He's still in pieces over Zelda._ And she felt guilty at even entertaining the thought that he would consider a real relationship with another woman, let alone someone like herself. Two years was most likely not enough time for him to cope with it, and certainly not with the arrival of this new person in his life. _But he did sort of come to me…_ She reasoned as her mind drifted again. But some incoherent mumbling from the male next to her kept her from drifting off to sleep again. Making a face, Aurea brought up both hands from beneath her face and planted them against his chest, trying to gently push away. It didn't work of course and in fact had the opposite effect as his arm around her tensed again, drawing her closer. "Gonna bean you elf-boy." She grumbled, one hand in a parody of a threatening fist; loose, unwilling and unable to do damage.

A slow grim spread across his face and one still-sleepy blue eye peeked open.

"Little cranky this morning?" He said, and made as though he might kiss her.

"Try it and you'll be singing soprano for-MPH?" Aurea's mind blanked temporarily as Link's lips med hers firmly, though not so rough as she'd have thought. But almost as quickly as it started, it stopped, and Link backed off, probably knowing she would do just as she warned the moment she was in her right mind again. He'd learned that much about her if nothing else in the short times they spent in each other's company. Aurea was still clearly stunned, because she just lay there with her fingers drifting to her lips. The young man next to her could only smile even wider as he sat up- CRACK! - And had to lay back down again with one hand to his forehead, which had connected sharply with the edge of the windowsill only moments before. That seemed to snap the young woman out of her daze, as she stared at him with a half-smile, the kind that is impeccably wry.

"You know," Aurea said while supporting her self with one elbow in the mattress. "It's a good thing we aren't married or anything." Her remark came seemingly out of the blue.

Arching one eyebrow at this, the blonde could only ask, "Why's that?" Through a voice, roughened with pain.

"You'd be permanently concussed." She said, smiling as widely as he had been only minutes ago and shaking with restrained mirth. For his own part, Link found nothing funny about being constantly smacked around while in her company. Even so, a small smile touched his face at the idea that she was probably right. Maybe, just maybe, it was funny, sort of…

After getting up and out of the bed without further injury, the two of them took some time to straighten themselves out before braving the outside world for the day.

"So, what're you up to today?" Aurea asked, breaking the silence.

"Why do I have to be up to something?" Link asked in the kind of tone that says the user is making a pathetic play for innocence.

"Because you're you and because you're breathing, 'nough said." Aurea answered calmly, thought still grinning, as she retied her long hair.

Link paused in the act of pulling his boots back on to watch her flip her hair forward and braid it that way. It was hard to not stare openly at her form. He knew he was becoming more attracted to her. That much was obvious from how his body reacted to her, despite what he wanted to tell himself. He just shook his head and went back to putting on his boots and then to his cap. There was no point thinking about her like that anyways. She was most likely not interested in him the way he sometimes wished, and besides, he was a broken man and could not really love again; not after that…

"What's with the long face?" Her voice brought him back from another bout of guilt. Link looked up in time to see that her face was maybe six inches away from his own, and blinked.

"It's nothing." He said, reverting back to the habit of near silence when he was depressed.

"You really suck at lying, do you know that?" Aurea's tone had sharpened, but not as though she was entirely angry. This was a different thing, as if she were irritated, and a little hurt, though he couldn't think why. When he looked up again, her back was to him and she was tying the laces on her own peculiar footwear. Before he was entirely sure he could get away with it, Link pounced on her and they both tumbled to the floor, Aurea making half-baked threats, Link just grinning like an idiot. "Will you get OFF me?" She finally burst out.

"No." Link said calmly looking like the proverbial cat that ate the equally proverbial canary. Aurea was about to say something, but he headed her off. "Not until you smile." A ringing silence followed for about five seconds.

"Okay, now I know you're nuts." She said almost placidly.

"C'mon." He said, his voice sort of lower than when he spoke normally. "Just, smile, alright?"

_This is just fucking weird._ Aurea thought, for lack of any better description. "You're crazy." She finally stated; her voice could have passed for that of a robot.

"Probably." Link replied, just as strangely.

"And you're gonna have you ass handed to you for this." She added, with an irate half-smile.

"I know." He said, and his voice had not changed. It was more than a little creepy. With a heavy sigh and much effort, Aurea hitched a smile onto her face, and Link smiled back. "Thanks, I needed that." It hadn't struck him until he'd said so, but it was true; he had needed that smile, that warm look. Putting his arms around her he picked her up and set her back on her feet. Backing off a bit, he noticed that she was staring at him with the oddest possible expression. "What?" He asked.

"Just contemplating your lack of sanity." She said quietly, then added in a much more fiendish tone. "Than and how I'm gonna tie you up with something fuzzy and pink." That made them both laugh as they walked down the stairs to the bar for some breakfast.

But of course given the political mess this world was now in, it would not be so simple as that.

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs they were immediately within the sights of not three but five Imperial Guards, and one petrified barkeep. All six stared at the two of them.

"And now we come to the dining room where everyone leaves their manners at the door." Aurea remarked pointedly. The barkeep reddened a bit, and maybe half the guards smirked. She turned to Link who was looking as though he might like to beat the living snot out of more than half of them right about now. "So anyway like I was saying," She started again. When he looked at her with confusion, she winded the eye that was out of their range of vision, since she was looking at him instead. "That wasn't her toe." She said, finishing her sentence. He had no idea where this was going but knew it was probably best to play along for now. So he just followed her as she shoved past the guards and closer to the kitchen.

"Then whose toe was it?" He asked, as if they had been having a real conversation the whole time about some woman's toe.

"The fuck should I know?" Aurea replied casually as they entered the kitchen, leaving the door wide open. "I do know that nothing about it indicates that it was her toe."

"Uh, the polish?" Link suggested amid a few curious and skeptical stares from beyond the door as he took his usual seat at the rough wooden table.

"Fine. As if it's impossible to get apply nail-polsih to someone else's toe." There were a few sounds of sickened stomachs outside as she said this while cracking eggs into a bowl. "Cheese omelet this morning?" she asked over her shoulder.

"Sure, thanks." Link replied, wondering is his friend really was crazy. _If she is, she's crazy like a fox._ He had to smile at that thought. If he was being honest, he knew she was as sane as the next person, give or take a good sense of humor. But what she was doing now definitely bordered on madness. The power of suggestion was a strong ally when one knew how to use it, and Aurea certainly did. Making the guards think that they were talking about something, quite possibly something rather gruesome, without so much as batting an eye was a brilliant move; it threw them off balance.

"Someone else's-?" Came an astonished voice from the doorway. Apparently she'd said just enough to unnerve at least one of them.

"Yeah why not?" She asked as she went on with her cooking.

"Where the fuck would you-?"

"You want a toe? I can get you a toe. Believe me." She said as though this were a business negotiation, while stirring the mixture of eggs, bacon, cheese and fine-chopped green onions. "There're ways man, you don't even want to know." She added with a smile and a kind of smirk.

"The-?"

"Hell I can get you a toe by 3 o'clock this afternoon, with nail-polish." She said as he poured the bowl's contents into a hot skillet. "Fucking amateurs." She added grinning like a lunatic again as she looked back at Link. "They send us a toes and we're supposed to shit ourselves with fear." And she laughed at that. "Oh and you guys, stay the hell outta my kitchen." She snapped suddenly at one of the guards who was about to set foot on the stone floor, then reconsidered the wisdom of doing so. Link could only smirk and feel slightly too proud of himself, since he was obviously allowed in and they weren't.

One of them however did not seem so intimidated, or else felt that being ordered around by a woman was a slam against his masculinity.

"Look Missy-."

"Don't call me Missy. Let's try and keep some measure of fucking courtesy shall we?" Aurea said sharply, and doubtless making them all wonder what the hell she might've been inhaling recently.

"Um, Miss?" said another one, working at manners, as if it were really an issue here of all places. Still…

"Yes?" Link knew the false calm she was playing was about as stable as a house of cards.

"We have a warrant for your arrest, sent down from the Emperor himself." Said the guard in question. There was maybe three or four seconds of dead silence, broken only by the sizzling in the skillet on the stove.

"Which means… what to me?" She said finally.

"Weren't you paying attention woman? We just said the Emperor-." A ruder guard started and then had to abruptly stop.

"THE EMPEROR IS NOT THE ISSUE HERE!" Aurea shouted loud enough to jolt all present. "Do you idiots even know what Probable Cause is?"

"Listen Miss, we understand how you feel, but we've got our orders." Said yet another, clearly working to keep his cool and the composure of his comrades.

"Fuck sympathy," She said coolly now, and at least Link marveled at her ability to command her voice like that. "I don't need your fucking sympathy, and if you take one more step inside this kitchen your entering a world of pain." The group of guards paused again, not sure what she would do if she were really provoked. Link was enjoying his breakfast and doing his best not to choke from forcing down the laughter he so wanted to let loose. There was a good possibility that he'd get a double hernia or something from trying to hold it in. One of them tried to speak and was easily cut off. "A world of pain." She repeated about three times. It took some time, but after a few more cold words and shipped threats, they left. Aurea sat down at the table and put her head in her hands for a minute.

"So, how's the uh, world of pain?" Link was smirking.

"Not funny." She grumbled, and he could hold it in no longer.

"By the Goddesses, you're mad!" he laughed heartily enough for both of them. "And what was all that stuff about the toe?"

"Forget about the fucking toe!" She snapped, still not looking at him but at the burn mark on the table. Link calmed down enough to be a bit worried but still smiling at her. He reached his hand across the table and put his fingers under her chin, making her look up at him again.

"Look, stop worrying. You scared them off, that at least buys us some time right?" Aurea only heaved a sigh at this, and Link adopted a more serious attitude at last.

"Link, if I have to keep taking and acting like I'm nutty as a fruit cake, I really AM gonna go insane." And because she sounded almost tearful, he came around the table and put his arms around her.

_So that's it._ He thought as one hand stroked the back of her head. _That's why she's so worried. She scared._ This knowledge hit him harder than he had quite realized. And it was a bizarre feeling to see someone so strong finally starting to break. It made him wonder in some vague way if the Goddesses were trying to show him what had really happened to himself over the past two years. "Aurea?" He said softly as he looked down at her. She looked up, her eyes shining with tears that she refused to let fall, even in his presence. "We'll get out of here now, alright?"

She gave a hollow little laugh, which he had expected. "What for? They'll find me no matter where I go."

"It makes no difference if they find you." He said sternly, even fiercely. "Not if they can't get near you."

_And that wasn't fucking cryptic at all._ She thought, but would not say, because it wouldn't help her now.

Getting irritated, Link placed his fingers under her chin again and made eye contact, not entirely aware of the look on his own face. "Listen to me!" He said in a harsh hiss. "I'll take you where you'll be safe, but you have GOT to trust me! Now tell me the truth, can you do that?" He didn't like the fact that she had to think a moment before she gave an answer, but he understood it even if it rubbed him the wrong way. It seemed that words did not want to work for her just now, so she nodded firmly, decisively. He returned the gesture. "We'll leave tonight, be ready to go by sunset, and listen," he caught her again as she nearly out the door to the bar again. Pulling her back towards himself again, he gave her a bear hug and breathed deeply. "Don't worry alright? Everything will be just fine." It was harder to let her go than it should have been, and that simple truth bothered him. It was enough for now that she was a friend, he could admit that to himself at least. And if he had been anyone else, his actions would have been a good deal overdramatic, to say nothing of crazy. But Link was one of those rare people who knew the value of friendship, honor, and integrity. That had been nearly the whole basis for going on that mad-headed quest all those years ago anyway. Besides that, it was his personality and he couldn't change it now, nor would he if it were even possible to do so.

Having guessed where Aurea had gone and what she had intended to do for the time being, Link decided to go into town and stock up on a few necessities. He had some thoughts about where she could hide, but the one he liked least seemed to be the best option. The forest would have been a good enough place to hide, but the Kokiri were not warriors and if Aurea were found there, it would be a massacre. And both Lake Hylia and Death Mountain were out of the question due to the extreme temperatures. That and Link seriously doubted Princess Ruto would be any too happy if he asked her to help a friend of his who just happened to also be female. A wry smile crept onto his face at the thought. _Ruto would probably take my head off. _He figured. By all that was sacred, if his world had turned upside-down when Zelda died, then all these recent events had certainly thrown it for another loop.

And as the distinct sound of an enraged female met his pointed ears, he felt a mental groan coming on, knowing it wouldn't get any easier. Before he had even reached the knot of people standing and staring, he knew by the voice who it was that some guards were attempting to arrest.

"I said, get your stinking paws OFF me you damn dirty-!" The rest of Aurea's words were lost in the noise of the scuffle. Link would've smirked if the situation hadn't been so serious; She was putting up a good fight, using anything she could, including those long nails of hers. Apparently they _were_ sharp enough to cut skin, if the bright red lines that dripped from the faces of some of the guards were any indication.

"Stubborn bitch!" One of them growled and was silenced again when her foot connected with his jaw. But even though she fought tooth and nail, there was really nothing she could do, they had the upper hand in both strength and numbers. For one wild moment, Link felt the urge to pull his sword and start taking them apart. But at the same time he knew he couldn't. If he attempted something so rash, the consequences would see no end. Trying to stop an arrest, even an unlawful one, was as good as declaring war on the Emperor himself; everyone knew it. Then again, he wasn't about to just sit back and do nothing. As the offending guards hoisted her off the ground again and carried her inside, he slipped in at the last second just as the formidable gates closed. He had to dive out of sight again behind some shrubbery and lie still, listening for anything. Aurea was still putting up a fight and managed a few more scratches, judging by the verbalizations from her captors. Link smiled slightly to himself. At least the idiots would pay for treating her like this. He wanted to follow more closely but he couldn't, since they would almost definitely spot him. For now, he kept low to the ground and just at the edge of hearing range. There was a terrifying moment when he could have sworn that Aurea had seen him and would scream for help, but after the pause in her tirade, she just went on trying to rip their faces off.

Eventually, the reached a place that Link had to stop and could not dare to follow as he had been doing. Aurea had been practically dragged into what had once been the throne room of the palace. Now it was the "Emperor's Main Audience Chamber" in an effort to sound more official or something. Again he'd had to hide in the bushes, lying on his stomach and observe what was going on between the leaves. If anyone looked his way, they would only see a mass of greenery. Aside from looking cool, his clothes also served a real purpose, and not just to keep him clothed either. But once they were inside and the huge heavy doors banged shut again, Link eased up slightly to get a better look at his surroundings. If he was careful, he could maybe use his hookshot to gain entrance through a higher, wood-framed window. He'd have to be as quick and quiet as possible. Link groaned inwardly, this was going to be damn near impossible. But then, he reasoned, he'd done the impossible once before hadn't he? He could do it again. Still crouched low, just to be on the safe side, he pulled out his hookshot and took careful aim. There was no way in hell he'd get another chance at this if he failed. He fired and it hit home, the exact mark he needed. Grinning like mad and praising the Goddesses, he soared up to the window before anyone could have guessed he was there. But his landing was none too graceful, as he had to scramble up through the window and literally fell into the room.

"Why's it always me?" The young blond grumbled as he sat up with one hand to the back of his head where a knot would probably form soon. He hat no time to worry about this though, there were more important things.

Aurea was at her wits end and about ready to snap and start pulling some badass shit on these bastards. All matters of rank, prestige, and authority be damned, nobody handled her like this and got away with it. When they passed through the massive doors into the palace, she had lost sight of Link completely and hoped to god that he would help her out of this. After all, he'd been crazy enough to follow her in past the gate.

All this was driven from her mind as she was dumped unceremoniously on the floor and had to pick herself up again.

"So what have I been sent today? Another 'gift' I wonder?" Said the man sitting on the throne before her. To say that he wasn't at all what she had expected would have been an understatement. She had pictured the self-proclaimed Emperor simply as short, fat, aged around his mid forties if not older, and every bit the opposite of what she found here. This man was maybe five years her senior at the most, with a toned lean body and a sculpted face to match. His ears, she noticed, were of the same general shape as nearly everyone else's in this world, long and pointed. He was perhaps rather paler than one normally found and the mix of red hair dark enough to look black sometimes and eyes of a shocking neon yellow all combined to make him both good-looking, and way more than just fucking creepy. Aurea's initial instinct told her to run like hell, but there was no point. She knew she'd just be caught and dragged back again. So rather than cowering like a scared little mouse, which she really would have liked to do, if only to avoid those weird eyes, she stood straight and tall, and glared. The Emperor merely smirked as he lounged on his throne, a few scantily clothed women either lolling about him, or else holding fans or trays of food. Aurea merely folded her arms and stood steady in her place, now remembering her irritation. "Hm," he said while sipping from a crystal class of what looked to be red wine. "A very pretty 'gift' too." He added thoughtfully, the corners of his mouth turning upwards.

The only answer he got from Aurea was a derisive little sound in her throat, and she kept glaring at him, trying to convey all the hate and disgust she felt.

"Your majesty," One of the guards spoke up, though tremulously, which made Aurea glance at him with utter contempt. "This is the strange woman that-." He stopped when the Emperor threw him a look that said shut the fuck up.

"This? This is the woman I've heard so much about?" He said snidely, as if he'd expected something more. Still she said nothing and looked defiant. "Interesting." He said after a minute, then decided to get up, much to the obvious disappointment of the women milling around him. They sent murderous looks towards Aurea who ignored the gesture. She was not so easily put down, and certainly not by women who really seemed no better than whores as far as she was concerned. The Emperor meanwhile, walked right up to her and was too close for her to be comfortable. Fighting down the urge to either pop him one or step away wasn't easy, but her pride and stubborn ways kept her from doing either. He looked her squarely in the face, and her only reaction was to arch one eyebrow irritably. "Heh." Was all he said, still smiling that weird smile of his. Still, Aurea did not move or say a word, but just stood there as she had been doing for the past five minutes. The Emperor started to circle her slowly, like a vulture picking the right moment to dive in and strike. When her arms folded themselves across her chest, he stopped and his grin spread a bit. "Ah, do I offend?" He asked condescendingly.

"No, it's just fucking annoying." Aurea bit out. A few of the women gasped and others looked gleeful. Clearly no one dared speak to the Emperor in such a way. And once of them had even been heard to bluster quietly, "Such language!" This made Aurea smile, though she forced it down again, not wanting him to know that she was pleased with herself. It did so much more to an opponent's nerves if they thought their enemy had no sense of humor.

The Emperor however, seemed rather amused. "The rabbit thinks she's a lioness!" He laughed openly, as did everyone else except the woman in front of him who remained silent again. When he calmed down again he said, "Well I know you're ruffled, and I feel somewhat responsible." He paused for another grin and laugh at the fury in her face. "But really, there is no need for you to feel so. You should feel honored." He added placing his hand on her shoulder, a gesture of chumminess lost on no one. The woman's glass-green eyes suddenly narrowed and she shrugged his hand away.

"Maybe by your logic." She remarked acidly, and still did not step back. Again a few people made sounds of shock at her blatant disregard for the power he held, and again, she ignored them. The Emperor sat back down on his throne with a sigh that seemed more contented than heavy, and snapped his fingers at one of the women next to him. She bowed as she held up a fresh crystal glass of wine and backed away hurriedly once he had taken it from her.

"You know why you're here." He said calmly and now as if he were some pompous high school principal verbally smacking around some arrogant little punk he'd just nailed.

"Actually, no, I don't." Aurea cut in sharply. He looked at her now with irritation as she went on. "The Goon Squad didn't tell me a bloody thing." She said jabbing her thumb over her shoulder to indicate whom she meant. There was no change in the Emperor's demeanor, or at least none that anyone could detect. "All anyone said is that you wanted to see me." She concluded, folding her arms again.

Now he sat up straight in a position of authority. "You are charged with disrupting the peace by means of treasonable utterances." He told her, his voice flat with anger. One or two of the women beside him smiled maliciously, as if they'd just won a particularly wonderful prize.

Aurea's reaction however was somewhat different from what they had expected. She cocked her head to one side and said, "Utterances?" The remark emphasized with a skeptical arch to her eyebrows.

"What drives the emperorship into disrepute? Undermined the foundations of the state?" He snapped rhetorically. There was a moment of hard silence.

"Okay, let me make a few things PERFECTLY CLEAR." Aurea said, leaving no room for negotiation on the matter. "First of all, you can't police whatever I think. If I don't say anything, then you've got nothing to go on." He opened his mouth to say something but she just plowed on. "Secondly, talking about politics and why things are the way they are is essential for society. It's how the people keep those in power accountable for their actions." She only paused to draw breath and the Emperor seemed to recognize that until she was finished, there was no point trying to stop her. "And thirdly, you're not my ruler." Now this had a profound effect on all since everyone straightened up a good deal, and even he the Emperor looked surprised. "I have no," she paused to conjure the right words. "No kinship to this land, and therefore none to you. As far as I'm concerned, you have no power over me!" She snapped out and for a few seconds all was dead quiet again.

"Have you finished?" He finally said.

"One more thing," A few people slumped in frustration having hoped her little speech was over. "You have the right to remain silent, anything you say will be misquoted and used against you. Thank you." She had finished at last and no one was quite sure what to make of her closing remarks.

"Is that all?" The Emperor sneered resting his chin on his fist.

"Yeah, pretty much." Aurea said with a shrug.

"Good." And he snapped his fingers and two guards came swiftly up and seized her by the wrists. Aurea only scowled at him, willing her eyes to pierce more than just his snipefish attitude. "Foolishly rebellious as you are," The Emperor said again walking right up to her. "That lone-wolf spit and spirit can be harnessed, oh yes it can." He added as her eyes narrowed further. The cold tips of his fingers touched just under her chin and Aurea snapped her head away to avoid the contact. "You're so predictable." He stated with a kind of amusement. "That's what makes my work so easy." And when he touched her face again, she actually snapped her jaws at him, and opened her mouth releasing an angry hiss as if she were some wild feline thing. The Emperor merely chuckled and nodded to the guards. "Bind her, and take her down to the lowest level." Aurea of course didn't know what this meant, but was smart enough to know it was probably nothing she'd like. Bu just then the Emperor gripped the guard's shoulder hard enough to make the man wince and said in a low snarl, "No one is to touch her. I want her handled with velvet gloves or it will be your hide." The guard nodded vigorously and when the other man let him go, Aurea had to jog to keep from being dragged along behind them.

Elsewhere, Link was sure he was lost. Had it really been so long since he'd been in this castle that he'd forgotten how things were laid out? So two years really was a long time, even if it didn't feel like it. It didn't help matters that he had to sneak around like a spy to avoid being caught. This made the task of navigation all the more difficult since he'd always been allowed to come and go during Zelda's time here.

_Focus you dummy!_ The young blond mentally snapped at himself as he ducked behind a pillar just in time. Someone, he didn't see whom, was walking down the hall and getting closer by the second. Link was worried that he'd be caught, but at this moment, he knew he could not move. If he did move, then he _would_ be caught; and then goodbye to all chances of helping his friend. Silence and stillness was all he could afford right now, so he took it. He would not realize until much later just how such action, or lack there of, would pay off.

"…Is a mouthy little thing though." Said a female voice a few meters away. Then something else, a sigh of exasperation was heard.

"Really Anya," Said the male voice Link was certain he knew. "One might think you were jealous of the little strumpet." Peaking ever so carefully around the pillar, Link's assumptions were confirmed. There was the Emperor, bold as brass, strutting around as if he'd earned this life of opulence he now had.

"I'm not jealous of HER." The whining female voice protested as Link carefully slid back to his proper hidi8ng place and listened. "I just don't see why she should be allowed in the Imperial Palace at all. Even the rats in the lowest dungeons know their place here." There was something familiar about that voice, but the exact memory seemed fuzzy to Link.

"It isn't any of your concern what her place here is." Said the Emperor warningly as Link peered around the column again. "The fact remains that that girl is a necessary evil, if my line is to continue."

"And what can she do that's so important?" The woman was pouting and clearly being a pain in the Imperial ass. The Emperor rounded on the woman and smacked her hard across the face. She fell to the floor and one hand flew to the offended cheek, her eyes wide and startled, like a bird that has dashed its head against a window and then cowers in fear and pain.

"I need her for the ritual, as you well know!" He growled at her, and Link would have fallen over from the shock if his muscles hadn't been holding up so rigidly. And in a rush, something occurred to him. Was it possible that they meant Aurea?

_Please no._ He silently begged. _By all that is good and holy…_

"She's not even fit for that!" Cried the woman through dry sobs. "She's not even from this land." Link's heart disappeared from where it had been thumping like mad in his throat, only to reappear as heavy as lead in his stomach. Well that was that, they had to have meant Aurea. How many people with those characteristics did one meet?

"I will decide what she is fit for." The Emperor snapped again, and Link listened just in case there was something more important to hear. "Question me again, and it will be the last time you do so." There was the sound of scuffling, and the young blond guessed that the woman had moved into a low bow or a cowering position on the floor.

"Forgive me, my Emperor." She begged, and Link rolled his eyes because they could not see him.

"Go to your room and wait for me there." The Emperor ordered. There was more scuffling, then the sound of one pair of feet beating a speedy retreat from the hall. The young man still in hiding swore to himself that the very beating of his heart would give him away. But after a minute or so, the Emperor chuckled at something he must've found amusing and walked off, leaving the hall empty except for the one person he had not seen. Link breathed easy again. But he had little time to waste on composing himself again. There was new urgency in his movements now. He had to find Aurea and get her out before anything could be done to her. Link's mind recoiled at the thought of what that might mean.

_If any of them dares to harm her, I'll…_His mind trailed off into images so violent that, if he had been in his right mind, they might've made him ill.


	7. Cruel Reality

A/N: I would just like to say, thanks to all who have reviewed and I'm sorry I haven't gotten this chapter up sooner. Take it from me, being a college student with a job SUCKS! Thanks for the patience and as ever let me know what you think.

Chapter 7

To say that Aurea was irritated would have been a gross understatement. At the moment she was sitting in the very center of her cramped dungeon cell, because she did not trust the moldering bed of straw, nor the corners of the small space; she was reminded of where caged animals usually chose to relieve themselves, and also she didn't like to think what vermin was probably residing there as well.

At least the guards watching her had given up trying to bait her patience. This was primarily because whenever they tried, the young woman would either glare indifferently, or else bite out some remark that was almost completely random and had nothing to do with whatever had been annoying her. More than once she'd said something like, "Who am I? I'm the one who's gonna kick your phony gold-brickin' ass, THAT'S WHO I AM!" And at one point she stated, "Nuke 'em 'til they glow, and shoot 'em in the dark." During these outbursts, her face was not the comical display of insanity, but rather she was fairly calm looking. It was unnerving, and the guards had taken to talking to each other in whispers; they had an irrational fear of the young prisoner overhearing them.

At the moment, Aurea was just sitting here with her knees up to her chest and her arms folded around them. Her folded arms hid the lower half of her face, and the sharply green eyes stared out just over her bare forearms.

"Looks like a cat, doesn't she?" the first guard commented in a low tone.

The other guard nodded. "Wonder what she's thinking." He said quietly. But apparently not quietly enough. They both saw the eyes sharpen ever so slightly, making them look even more feline.

"Life dose not start and stop and your convenience you miserable piece of shit." She said in that cool, matter-of-fact voice she used. That seemed to have been the sanest thing she'd said at all since they locked her in that cell. They had not seen her lips move, since she was still half-hidden behind her own arms, and the result was that they saw only the change in her eyes and heard her voice, as if she could tap into their minds at will.

The two guardsmen exchanged one deeply uncomfortable look before they got up from their chairs.

"I'm going for a pint." The first said and made hasty steps towards the door to the stairs. The second gave Aurea one last glance.

"Uh, me too." And he was on his comrade's heels before he could be left alone with this strange woman. The heavy door slammed behind them, and there was the sound of a key scraping in the lock and the tumblers falling into place. There the heavy footfalls retreated up the stairs, and Aurea heaved a sigh.

To her credit at least, she was not nearly as crazy as she had let them to believe. But she knew that odd, outlandish behavior would throw them off their focus, even scare them. It had worked and now she was alone to think, to maybe find a way out of here. Alright, the door to the stairs was locked, the cell door was locked, the bars were too close together to let her squeeze through, there was no window in her cell, and she had not hair bin or anything to pick the locks.

"Oh bloody hell." She muttered dispiritedly. She couldn't have just had so much as a bobby pin, or a sewing needle or something to just work with. "Damn it all." She grumbled and tried something different, thinking that maybe the hinges on her cell door would be simple and just require enough force to lift them off. But she never found out one way or another. They young woman went absolutely rigid when she heard something jogging down the stairs. Whomever, or whatever it was, stopped just outside the heavy, bolted door. Not wanting to get caught at an escape attempt, Aurea quickly sat back in her original position and arranged her face in what she hoped was the moody expression it had been.

Just then the door swung open, and banged stiffly off the wall. And Aurea found herself glaring at a green-clad figure with scruffy blonde hair, and eyes like an ocean storm. Link! Her mind jumped, quite as fast as the rest of her body did. She hadn't even registered the fact that she was now on her feet and pressing into the bars of her cell, eager to be out of it, wanting to be that much closer to him.

Link used the key he had just lifted from the guards, which now lay on the stairs, bleeding and out cold, to coax the cell door open. It gave way, and creaked in protest as it opened. Link blinked a d found his air-passage obstructed. He had to take a step back as well. Aurea had practically jumped on him when there was enough space for her to get out. And now she was hugging him just a tad too hard around the neck, her face somewhere against his shoulder. All he could really do was try to breathe carefully, and pat her on the back of the head and between her shoulder-blades, trying to calm her down enough to loosen that death-grip she had. When she finally did ease up, he had a slightly idiotic, lopsided grin on his face.

"What?" Aurea asked, not quite defensively, but rather in a concerned way.

"I should let them lock you up more often." Link replied, still smiling that ridiculous smile. His remark was met with a sharp punch to his right arm.

She stomped off, up the stairs muttering something like, "You smug bastard," as he followed her.

"This is your fault; I don't know HOW, but I know it is." Aurea growled as she tried her best to stay afloat in what was quite possibly the slimiest place in this world.

"Yeah, because clearly the maniac who kidnapped you had nothing to do with it." Link replied coolly, while keeping his head above the waterline, which was really more like a sludge-line.

Compared to where they now were, getting out of the dungeon and past guards had been a cakewalk. Negotiating the gardens had not been quite so simple. While inside the castle, they only had to make sure to take care when dodging between pillars and behind statues and whatever made a convenient hiding plaice. But in the garden, there were far too few statures and visual obstacles to provide proper cover. As a result, they had to shuffle through tall flowerbeds on their bellies; and by the time they had worked their way, not quite unscathed, out of some thorny rose bushes, Aurea was swearing if she ever got her hands on the Emperor, she'd make sure to tie him up none too gently with them. That had made Link smile. He had imagined Aurea doing just that, and it made a very funny picture to think of the Emperor wincing as she tightened a prickly rope around him. The maniac deserved it.

But there had been no way of getting past neither the walls, nor the big wrought-iron gates, because both were heavily guarded. The Emperor was a paranoid man, and no wonder. The only way in or out was to try and flatten about twenty Imperial Guards at once, and then there was the alarm, which would have surely been sounded. Unless you had one hell of an army, it was a foolhardy enterprise. So, there was just the one way left, through the well in a far corner, reached by scrambling under those infernal roses.

After much grumbling, complaining, and general profanity, from both of them, they at last emerged from what Area now called,"The Viral Breeding-Ground." And neither one had to tell the other that a bath was in order. Unfortunately, that meant taking turns keeping a lookout while the other one scrubbed the grime out of their skin, as well as their clothes.

"We'll never get the smell out." Aurea remarked as she bent her head to sniff carefully at the shoulder of her shirt; she made a face of disgust.

"We can get some other clothes." Link sighed as they trudged back towards the Inn, so as to retrieve Aurea's belongings, as well as some of his own, not to mention Epona.

"Maybe you can." There was her impatient bad temper again. "Everyone and his cousin is probably looking for me." Well, alright, she had a point there. "And by now those idiots you knocked out told everyone what you look like and what you're wearing. They'll be after you ass too." Link paused in the act of easing the back door to the Inn open, and looked over his shoulder at her with one arched eyebrow. "Not THAT way!" she hissed, and looked around hoping no one was there to hear him or her. "Get your head out of the gutter for once!" She added as she followed him inside.

"Please tell me you didn't just suggest that I've gone funny." Link said as he peered into Room 3 before entering. All of their belongings that had bee left there, were still right were they had been hours ago. Link picked up his belongings, which were fewer in number, and fixed them into place on his person.

"Now what are you doing?" Aurea asked in a tired kind of exasperation.

"Going to get you some new clothes." The Hero of Time sounded at if she should already know all of this.

"I'm not wearing a dress." Aurea said, sounding like a stubborn little kid.

"You are if you don't want to get caught again." Link shot back, more sharply than he had intended. He regretted it when he saw her startled and hurt expression, but the look only lasted a second before she was surly and stubborn again.

"Fine," she said, resigned to it. And as he was just at the door he was stopped again. "Wait a minute."

"Link turned around, now clearly annoyed. "What?" he asked shortly then looked puzzled as several different colors of rupees were shoved into his hands. "Uh, I'm not buying you a ball-gown am I?" It would've been funny if not for the wiry grim smile on his friend's face.

"Just make sure to get two dresses, and uh, one of them has to be huge okay?"

"What for?" This request for two garments of different size had him wondering what game she was about this time.

"Just trust me on this!" she snapped as she turned him back towards the door, giving him a shove to make him move. "I know what I'm doing; now get a move on!" It was almost funny how her mood and expressions and all of it could shift so quickly. If Link hadn't known better, he would have thought she was pregnant or something. Of course he couldn't be entirely certain, but he knew her well enough to know what kind of person she was. He had thought on this before of course, and still stuck to the conclusion that she was probably a virgin, given how she could act, especially around the opposite sex.

Not much time had passed when there was a knock on the closed and locked door or Room 3. Link heard quiet feet padding over to the door.

"Who's there?" Came a low rasp of a voice, Aurea's whispering voice.

"It's me." When he got no answer, he elaborated a bit. "It's Link." There was another pause, then the lock slide back. But the door didn't open. The soft feet retreated back to the opposite side of the room again, and went silent. Link pushed the door open and poked his head in. He could have screamed if he had been in the habit of losing his head in a situation like this. Standing on the opposite side of the room was Aurea, her long brown-and-gold hair down, with her bow strung, and one slender arrow notched into place. Well, one thing was for certain, her aim had improved. If she had released that arrow, he would have been dead within a minute, seconds even. But she relaxed once she saw for sure that it was he.

"You scared the hell out of me." She breathed, clearly paranoid of anyone else hearing her, even after he had entered and closed and relocked the door.

"I scared YOU?" He said somewhere between fright and recovery there from. Needless to say, he was not used to finding himself on the wrong end of a weapon; at least, not one held by a friend.

"Sorry," she mumbled to the floor. "I'm high-strung."

"I hadn't noticed." He said dryly, handing her both dresses. They were simple, and would cover a lot, thank the heavens. That was what they were both aiming for, since it would be that much harder for her to be noticed in a crowd. Nobody would notice some handmaid, or farm-girl leading a hoarse out of the gates.

"Turn around." She said as she turned to the bed and laid the dress down. Link did as he was told, thinking that he'd have rather kept one eye on her, and knowing full well that she would have probably blacked that eye for it. He grimaced at the thought, and focused his gaze on the door, even though it was firmly latched shut. He tried not to hear the rustle of clothes, or the sound of bare feet on the floorboards, tried not to how she looked with her hair down over that bare form. A shiver coursed through him, and he shifted his weight from one foot to the other and back again. "Okay, you can look now." Aurea's voice did not entirely draw him out of his thoughts, and he turned awkwardly towards her. The skirt of the dress fell to the floor, not allowing any indecent exposure of ankles. The bodice hugged her form, but not so much that she couldn't breath, and clearly not enough to show anything that the local male population would want it to show. The sleeves ended at the middle of her upper arms, showing that she was a working girl, probably of low birth, and therefore below anyone's desire as her for a bedmate, so to speak. This would work well. Her ears stayed hidden as usual under the handkerchief, and with her hair loose, it only helped to cover the fat even more. There was only one problem. They would see the mark, the red Triforce on her right hand.

"We'll have to put a bandage or something over that." Link pointed out as he gestured to her hand, and the mark.

"Yeah, I know." She sounded dismissive, but her face told him otherwise. He didn't have long to think in this however, not when she was hading him the other dress. "Go on, get changed." She said impatiently, turning around to give him privacy. Link looked at the garment and then at his friend's back.

"You can't be serious." He said, hoping to the goddesses that he was right. But life had taught him more than once, that he was not that lucky.

"They're gonna be looking for you, even if you're wearing different clothes." She said, trying at patience.

"So what? I can wear a hood and-."

"And be caught when they pull it back to get a look at you." It was clear he was not going to win this argument. And all the time he spent changing into clothing that was more than obviously not meant for him, Link kept thinking things like, _This is madness_, and, _Nobody's that gullible._ But there, as it happens, he would be proven wrong.

Once he pronounced himself decent, although embarrassed, Aurea turned around again to face him. She gave him a quick glance from head to toe before a wry expression took hold of her face.

"Diagonal-boobs, you wanna fix that?" Link looked down at his own chest and noticed that, sure enough, one rounded ball of stuffing was heading south. How women ever dealt with having breasts, he could only guess and hope that he never had to relive this ordeal. Once properly done up, so to speak, they walked out to the stables with their belongings in hand. Their things had to be disguised, so as not to draw attention. That part at least was fairly easy, since everything could be covered with burlap sacking-clothe and tied to Epona's back. Also this meant that they would have no trouble keeping her saddled so as to make a faster run once out of sight. The burlap and the ropes tying it would hide the saddle, the girth, and the stirrups, nobody would notice. They could leave the bit and reigns on her since, again, no one would question it. There had been a minor problem with hiding Link's ears, so Aurea didn't look entirely out of place again, but that was easily solved by another one of her handkerchiefs. It hid his ears and the length of his unruly blonde locks quite well.

"Quit sulking, you look cute." Aurea remarked at one point as they made the way towards the gates to the Castle Market Place.

"This is cruel and unusual." Link muttered, praying no one but her could hear.

"Yeah, but it's not punishment." Aurea shrugged, as Link glared at her. "Think of it as a necessary evil."

"You're evil." He said flatly.

"I'm not the one usurping the natural order of things here." Aurea said. "And keep your voice down." She added.

"_Natural order of things" MY ASS!_ Link wanted to shout but held his tongue. It would do no good whatsoever to have everyone find out he had now been coerced into cross-dressing. "Remind me how this is necessary?" Link whispered as they passed a group of men, eyeing them none to guardedly.

"It's necessary because the government is evil!" She hissed back, and that was that about that. He silently agreed with her, just not the methodology.

They passed the gates without much incident, unless one counted the wolf-whistles and the Hero of Time getting a firm, open-palmed smack to the rear by a guard. Half a mile out from the Castle Town, he was still grumbling incoherently about getting revenge for that. Aurea could only smile, and try to keep her tongue firmly pinched between her teeth to stop herself from laughing.

After even more time, it was getting late, and Link pointed out that it was dangerous to stay out in the open at night, the argument of "Strength in numbers" not withstanding.

"You realize you're changing your clothes out in the open right?" Aurea remarked as she kept her back to him again. She didn't want to think about what he might look like with not shoes, no shirt… _NO SERVICE!_ Her mind screamed at her to keep her thoughts PG-13, but it was damn difficult. She was a healthy young woman, and Link was, undoubtedly a healthy young male. _He's not human._ Her sense of reason tried to remind her. And this of course only prompted further curiosity as to just how much the Hylian and Human races differed physically.

"I'm well aware, thanks." Link's voice broke her from her thoughts, and made her blush. Aurea was glad he could not see her face just yet. She needed another moment or two to compose herself and get her mind on something – ANYTHING – else.

One more argument and a few more hours later found them nearing the entrance to Kokiri Forest. Link was now happily in his usual green tunic, though a newer one. Aurea on the other hand was still in the dress, but it was not only this that pecked at her sense of irritation.

"You're not going to fall off." Link sighed for maybe the eighth time since they had started riding. The young woman was gripping him quite hard around the waist, her other hand holding onto the saddle. His arms, of course, were around her so as to both keep her from falling off, and also to direct Epona.

"You and your damn chivalry." She bit out, by now quite grumpy. There was only so much nerve-racking she could take damn it. "And don't tell me it's 'Proper for a woman to ride side-saddle,' when we both know it's impractical."

"Customs." Link shrugged.

"Have we passed that rock, what, six times now?" Aurea asked as they passed a large boulder that rested to their right.

"No." Link said simply. Whether she knew it or not, Link was quite sure of the way to his own childhood home. Hell he still lived there, so he better be sure of it. And in a few minutes there was the big hollow log to the Kokiri forest, and the Lost Woods as well. The young Hylian dismounted, and Aurea tripped as she tried to do the same.

"I told you so." She said, her words muffled against his chest, because Link had just barely prevented her from a complete fall.

"It wasn't while we were riding." He commented as she regained her balance. _Not that I minded her falling for me._ But he wisely kept that remark to himself. The guilt that had been so strong at first, now seemed diminished, though it still pecked at him, like a crow to a slowly rotting corpse.

Aurea also had a rough time passing through the tunnel, due in part to her state of dress.

"It' keeps snagging!" she stated in a tone of supreme frustration, and Link half-expected to hear a ripping sound any second.

"We're almost out." He hoped this would pacify her sense of irritation, but alas…

"You said that three snags ago." But this time he was right. Link somersaulted out of the wooden-log-tunnel and stood upright again. It was twilight by now, and the first stars had started to pick the sky with their pinpoints of light. The crescent of silver that was the moon was still so low in the east that he could not see it clearly for all the trees. Aurea rolled out too, though not quite so gracefully, and ended up sprawled on her back. Link merely looked at her with a bemused expression. "You totally suck." She pouted as sat up, then stood up, and brushed grass and dirt from her backside.

"Need a hand?" Link couldn't resist asking.

"That depends," Aurea said pausing in her actions.

"Depends on what?" He almost didn't want to know.

"Do you need a swift kick in the butt?" Well, that answered that.

"Uh, no thanks."

"There you go."

Most of the Kokiri children were still out and running around, and every now and then one or two would pause to look at the pair of tall people. Aurea could tell, much to her chagrin, that she seemed to be the center of attention, more that her male companion. They seemed used to Link strolling around in their midst, but that was probably to be expected since he even dressed like them, at least in part. Aurea stood out by comparison, not only because she was taller than the Kokiri, but also her state of dress was of a different color of wheat, a blouse like flour and patterns of yellow flora on the garment. Yep, she definitely looked different. At one point she looked back over her shoulder and, sure enough, there was a little knot if midgets following about ten feet behind. She tugged at the shoulder of Link's tonic to get his attention and muttered, "We have an entourage," when he looked around. The Hero of Time could only grin a sheepishly. He knew full well that the Kokiri had always been like that.

But now the little crowd was parting and one of them-- who was slightly taller and easily wider than the rest—stepped forward, chest puffed out, and glared up at Link.

"You brought in an Outsider!" He shouted, apparently trying to sound important.

"Stuff a sock in it Mido." Link remarked as rolled his blue eyes heavenward.

"What'd you say?" Huffed Mido as he rolled up the short sleeve on his right arm.

"You know," Aurea said thoughtfully, and effectively breaking the fight before it even started. "I just love children, but I could never eat a whole one." She pared the last remark with a twisted grin, the kind you NEVER want to see someone giving you. Mido backed off a step or two, but refused to go any further.

"You threatening me?" the brat snapped at her. Aurea gave Link a look that sad, _"This kid's an idiot isn't he?"_ Link could only smirk and bite cheek. Damned if this wasn't funny! Mido was so used to getting his way and throwing his weight around that it no doubt floored him when someone stood up to him like this. Plus there was the fact that both he and Aurea had easily three feet on Mido. It was probably a knock against the kid's pride that he had to literally look up at the two adults. Eventually Saria showed up and basically told Mido to shut up or she really would stuff a sock down his throat. Grumbling, the taller child stomped off to many a laugh and pointed remark. Once the clear bully of the place had been disposed of, the others started to crowd in a little closer, asking questions, tugging at her clothes to get her attention, and soon causing her to sit down because of it.

"Where are you from?" Asked a girl.

"Are you Hylian?" Asked her friend.

"Why are your eyes green? Are you a really old Kokiri?" a smaller boy asked.

"You're really pretty." Said another boy, blushing as if he had a fever.

"What happened to your hand?" Another asked, pointing to the small reddish triangle on her right ring finger.

Link and Saria merely watched and listened as Aurea tried her best to answer one inquirey after another. For his own part, Link found it rather amusing that she seemed to think of the Kokiri as children, when in reality they were older than him. In a way, they still did have a child mentality, but that was coupled with wisdom as well, though they had yet to show it to her.

"So how long are you two staying here?" Saria asked Link in an undertone.

"Just the night." Link replied. "This place isn't a fortress, it'd be dangerous to stay here any longer than tonight." If he was right in his thinking-- and he was sure he was right—then the Imperial Guards would be out looking for them by now. They had some advantage, since most didn't know anything about Kokiri Forest, and couldn't reach it anyway, not with all that bulky armor on. Even so, he would not have them storming the place and most likely killing all the Kokiri, it simply wouldn't happen, he wouldn't allow it.

"Where are you going to go?" Saria said skeptically, and Link bowed his head. His long, scruffy bangs shielded his eyes for a full minute as he thought about this. Hyrule Castle Town and Kokiri Forest were off limits for obvious reasons. Zora's Lake would have been a good enough hiding place, and so would Death mountain; but apart from the extreme temperatures, if they were spotted at any point while in route, neither domain could really protect them. So there was only, logically one place left, and Link would have given just about anything to be barred from that option.

"Gerudo Valley." He finally muttered.

For a long moment, Saria just looked at him, then heaved a sigh. "Well, it's probably the safest place right now." Her tone of voice had the same resignation that Link was feeling. He'd probably live a happier, healthier life if he stayed away from the place, but what could they do? It was really the best, if not the only, option.

When it had started to get really late, and little forest-people should be in bed, Link lead his guest to his own tree house. Most wisely, Link had adjusted the ladder up to the doorway, so that it would be pulled up whenever he wanted. At least going through the awkward phase of puberty had yielded something. Once inside, they knelt down at the too-small table and ate a modest meal, a thin stew made of some vegetables, a coupled of dried roots and nuts and a few bits of dried out meat that softened in the hot water. They hardly exchanged words during the meal. The young woman seemed deep in thought, and Link didn't feel the need to bother her about it. The only real talk they had was when it was time for bed.

"There's no way we could both fit on that." Aurea said pointedly as the jabbed her thumb in the direction of the bed, which was clearly meant for a child.

"I've been sleeping it for years." Link said as he removed his sword and shield, setting them against the wall.

"Yeah, if you sleep in the fetal position." Aurea said dryly.

"Try laying down." Link said, now removing his boots. Aurea humored him, if only to prove him wrong. She sat on the bed, pulled off her shoes, and laid down. She stretched out as far as she could and only just felt the tips of her fingers and toes touching the head and footboards. She sat up in the bed and stared. She fit quite comfortably in a bed that was more than big enough for her.

"Have I shrunk?" she said as she looked to Link, who still seemed as normal-sized as ever.

"Nope. The bed just does that." He said as he pulled the covers back and slipped in. "You coming?" he asked and smirked. "Or are you going to just lie there and freeze?"

Grumbling something about, "If you try anything…" Aurea slid in beside him. Despite what she said, Link had the feeling she had grown use3d to sleeping next to him, mostly because she had quickly dropped off to sleep once she'd settled down. She even rolled over so that she ended up half-on him, her right arm resting haphazardly across his ribs. Link only laid still for a moment, then smiled when it was clear Aurea would not wake up for a time. For a long while, his mind stayed awake, working on any other possibilities besides Gerudo Valley. But the facts were the facts: that fortress was the only real stronghold that could keep the Emperor out. He sighed again and his gaze wandered to her hand, to the dark triangular mark, which sat there as proudly as if it were a ring. As he curled in a little closer to her, he hoped that it was not an ill sign.

The next day dawned softer than the others had, the light not reaching those in the forest until it could finally peek between the outstretched leafy arms. Birds perched outside windows and on the edges of roofs, twittering their songs to the new light of another day. Aurea was woken by the light, almost musical notes, but quickly came to the conclusion that she was far too comfortable to get up, and relaxed against the warm, breathing thing. Against her will, or so it seemed, her consciousness surfaced and reminded her that pillows, no matter how warm and comforting, did not breath. With a kind of mental grumble, she looked at what she'd been sleeping against. Her eyes registered Link's chest, then carefully drew up to his face. There was a slight blush in the cheeks, but other than that he looked peaceful.

_He's like a teddy bear sometimes._ Aurea couldn't help thinking, and she smiled. He had not caught her cuddled up to him this time. As she made to sit up, an arm came around her and clamped her body firmly to that of the arm's owner. _Deja Vu._ The young woman thought dryly, while resisting the urge to just sock him. It was too early at the moment, not that that had really stopped her in the past, but it was different now. She didn't know how, but it was. Pushing her hands against his chest did nothing to loosen his grip, and if anything made him hold on tighter. Well, there was another option, but she'd have to be fast in order for it to work. One hand was placed on his bicep, the other on his forearm. She gripped hard with both hands and shoved herself out. She was now free to breath without effort again, though it had considerably ruffled her hair in the process. But the discomfort of the male—who still lay sleeping—was apparent when his face frowned and his arms clamped nothing to his chest. His whole form tightened and curled in a bit on himself. Then, one eye peeped open hazy as the morning mist over a blue sky. Link blinked both eyes slowly and focused on Aurea, who was just sitting there looking down at him. He visibly relaxed, but the soft blush in his cheeks had not gone. Aurea reached out a hand and felt with her bare wrist against his forehead. There was not fever, so that was one good thing at least. "I'll make breakfast." She said gently, and had to climb over him to get out of the bed. Link on the other hand, didn't think it was such a good idea to get up just yet, so he pulled the pillow from under his own head, and clamped it in his arm just as he fell back to dreamland.

Needless to say Aurea was surprised when Link didn't wake up again, even when the tempting scents of a good morning meal were wafting his way. She took a seat beside him on the bed and just watched him sleep for a moment. It was almost hard to wake him up and tell him to have some breakfast, especially when he looked so contented and—did she dare think it?—childlike. Aurea hadn't bothered changing into other clothes yet, she had the feeling that it would just be generally easier for the time being if she stayed in the dress; plus, she didn't entirely trust Link to resist the urge to be a pervert.

After breakfast, and many a confused question from Aurea, they had packed up and said their goodbyes to the Kokiri. Back through the hollow-log-tunnel, Link had used that odd little musical implement to whistle out some tune. A pounding gallop later, the red-and-white mare, Epona, was waiting for them, saddled and ready to get a move on. They did not get going immediately, mostly because Aurea refused to sit in front of him, and ride sidesaddle again. Link would have argued with her sitting behind him, and more over hiking the skirt of her dress a bit just so she could ride the same way he did. But speed was the necessity now, and a fight would only give their enemy more time to catch up. So he let it go and let her ride however she wanted, not that he really minded the feel of her hands hugging at his stomach.

With the cover of the forest now long behind them, Link's mind wandered a bit.

_What would it be like if Zelda were here, holding onto me like this?_ The thought stung him deep down. Given that she was royalty, it was a great deal that he was allowed to spend any time with her at all. Going off riding with her, or to a picnic, or really anywhere beyond the safety of the castle walls had been out of the question. _Safety._ He thought dryly. After all was said and done, nothing had stopped her death, she had not been safe at all; and she should have been.

This thought process continued as far as the grasslands turning thinner and more prickly until it finally gave way to a wide-open sand-scape. Epona's hoof-beats changed from clobbity-clobbity to thubbity-thubbity with the shift in terrain. They had only gotten maybe twenty yards out into the desert when Link pulled back on the reigns.

"Why are we stopping?" Aurea asked, somewhat alarmed. Without an explanation, Link shushed her and looked back. So the dull far-off thundering hadn't just been his imagination, nor was it a storm. Although there was a dust-cloud some distance behind them, it was a clam day, with no wind to raise anything of the sort. It could only mean an army, closing in fast.

"Hang on!" Link shouted as he turned back to face their intended destination. They young woman was about to ask why when her arms clutched hard around his middle as he kicked Epona into a full gallop.

There was the Gerudos' fortress, maybe three or four miles ahead. But the company of what could only be Imperial soldiers was closing in and gaining all the time. About two-and-a-half miles now, and unless his eyes were acting funny, the gates were opening, just a little, not enough to allow more than one or two riders in. One mile left to go, but the distance was suddenly wiped from his mind. There was a splitting scream mixed with the hard ring of metal on metal, and he felt the young woman's fingernails dig sharply into his skin, even beneath the clothing he wore. And he was horribly aware of Aurea's crying against his right shoulder, and something very red running down her left arm—which was now limp—and slowly down his left leg.

It was only dimly that he registered where they now where, inside the fortress, the gates closed and barred again, loud thuds coming from the other side, as though large heavy bodies were plowing relentlessly into it. There was yelling, lots of it, but not just from the would-be intruders. Looking distractedly up to the high walls of the fortress, Link could see the Gerudo archers firing fast, one dart after another at those who dared to try and assault them. Something wet was on his right shoulder and he looked around, his wits finally breaking the surface of shock again. Aurea was leaning her head on his shoulder, tears falling fast from her rigidly shut eyes, her pretty pace twisted hard in pain. What had caused this was not immediately clear, until he noticed the long shaft and fledging that still stuck out the back of her left shoulder. His eyes went as round as the face of a clock and he yelled for help much louder than he had even guessed he could yell. He hadn't noticed that help was already on the way before he'd shouted. Five of the Gerudo Thieves were prying the young woman's working arm from around Link's waist and attempting to remove her from the saddle. Aurea did not go easily. Every time there was any significant movement, she would cry out again, and it seemed that the blood flowing from the wound refused to stop. Shouted orders to take the girl to some infirmary never quite reached the Hero's ears. All he could do was stand there and watch as the other women carried her away from him, a trail of red following behind them, like the torn and tattered remnants of a red carpet.

Link was not even aware of making the conscious decision, but his legs started to move anyway, carrying him along the splotched red path. A hand on his shoulder stopped him and he looked numbly around. He recognized the face, but for the moment, the memory of names failed him.

"You're a sight Hero; riding in here with the Emperor's stooges like that." Said the woman, and now he remembered her name.

"Nabooru?" He still wasn't entirely sure.

"Took you long enough." She remarked with a half-smile. Link opened his mouth, but never got out what he was about to say. "Don't worry about your little girlfriend." Nabooru said, starting to walk off. "It's just an arrow, she'll be fine."

"FINE?" Link spluttered. He stomped up to Nabooru, who kept walking anyway. "Where is she? I want to see that she's alright!"

From the perspective of the Leader of the Gerudo Thieves, Link now sounded rather childish. "She's been taken to the infirmary and the arrow will be out soon, so stop worrying." She said coolly.

"Which way?" Link demanded, stepping in front of her to make her stop and face him. "I want to see her!"

"Which way do you think?" Nabooru remarked waspishly, and pointed a finger at the ground. Link looked down, to see spots of blood staining the stone floors. He looked around and found the path, though it was clearly thinning now; the amounts lessened the farther he went.

Nabooru heaved a sigh, and couldn't help thinking, somewhat irritably, _Adolescence finally caught up with him._

Link, meanwhile, was again having problems of his own. He had found the infirmary, but was barred from entering.

"The IDEA is IMPROPER!" Snapped one of the women standing guard outside the door.

"I don't give a damn about your impropriety!" Link's voice was by now, practically ringing through the long twisting stone halls. Even so, the refused to let him pass, and had to go so far as to pin him to the ground to keep him from just barging in. The weight on his back and awkward positioning of his arms not withstanding, Link was in a kind of torture. His sensitive ears picked up every pained gasp, every cry from behind that door. And although he wanted to believe, had to believe that Aurea was alright, right now it was damn near impossible.

Time passed and the sounds that turned his gut so, quieted and eventually stopped altogether. And now Link was in a worse state than before. Before he had at least been sure she was alive, even if in a great deal of pain, she would still recover from that. But now there was nothing but the mutterings of others behind that door, and he did not recognize any of the voices as belonging to the one he wanted to see. The door opened and several women, and conversations, stopped upon seeing the Hero of Time pinned chest-down against the floor.

"Let me up!" He growled and again tried to move, without much success. The pressure on his arms increased until it was quite painful. "I want to see her." He choked out through the knot that was forming in his throat.

"It's alright. Let him up." Nabooru's voice ordered. The sharp pressure on his arms was instantly lifted and Link was on his feet again with one foot through the door before he was halted yet again.

"Damn it all…!" The rest of his cursing was lost to their ears

"Enough!" Came the hard cutting command. "Release him. Let him go and see her if he wants." The word of the Leader of the Gerudo, was as good as law here, so they did as they were told. Link didn't spare so much as a backward glance as he darted inside. For once, all the beds in the little recovery area were empty, save one in the far corner of the room. Area lay on her back, her left arm in a sling, the shoulder wrapped snuggly in a bandage. It was apparent from a glance that the women had undressed her because her shoulders were completely bare accept for the dressings. Only a sheet covered her up enough to keep some measure of decency. At least there was no blood soaking through it, that was surely a good sign, even if she did look pale. Link chose the right-hand side of the bed, so as to avoid accidentally injuring her further, and sat down. He was surprised when those impossibly green eyes opened and looked straight at him. And for a moment, they just stayed like that, each staring at the other, not saying a word. But the awkwardness was broken almost as quickly.

"Hey." Said the young woman, and her voice was a bit scratchy, from the screaming and crying, he suspected.

"How're you feeling?" Link asked quietly, praying that she wouldn't hate him. Aurea frowned for a moment, but it was a thoughtful one, not an angry one.

"You ever heard a paper-cut is the worst kind of pain?" Link merely looked puzzled in response, but nodded anyway. "WRONG!" she said in a long loud groan. He would have smiled, even laughed, if the situation hadn't been so serious. The best he could manage was the corners of his mouth turning up slightly, a very week shadow of his usual cocky grin. He didn't say anything though, mostly because he didn't know what he could say. Aurea seemed to be in much the same frame of mind, because for a long time, she said nothing else.

The sun was setting and sending up burning shades of red, orange and yellow as it sank far past the edges of the desert, where the world probably ended. Link had busied himself with unbraiding her long hair, and was now just sitting there stroking it absently, and staring out the long windows. Aurea was looking at his face, and not really paying attention to the hand that ran through her long tresses as though she were a pet or something. She watched the expression on his face, the faraway gleam to his eyes, the deep golden hue the setting sun lent to his skin and hair; and she heaved a heavy sigh, and he looked at her.

"I can't ever go home, can I?" She said, and this caught him way the hell off guard. Whatever he had thought she might say, that had certainly not been it.

"I-I don't know." He stumbled over the words that were the plain truth. There was a long, not entirely unwelcome, pause.

"Link?" He looked at her again, and tried to ignore the feeling like over-large worms writhing and wriggling around in his stomach. He could see the tears that longed to fall from her eyes; he could see that she was stubbornly refusing to let them do just that. Her right hand came up and stopped the hand that had been running through her hair. Aurea gripped his fingers hard with hers, and he gripped back. "I'm scared." She said quietly. Still those tears did not fall, still she remained calm. But the look in her face, the tremble in her strong grip, stung him as deeply as anything ever had in his life. The last time he had felt like this, was when he had known— really known-- that Zelda was dead and beyond his reach. Link laid down on the bed next to her and put his arm around her waist. His left hand brought her uninjured right one up to his face, and he planted a gentle kiss in the center of her palm. As he nuzzled the side of his face into her hand, he brought the arm that had been on her waist up to her face and cupped her cheek.

"I'm sorry…" Link's voice sounded so distant and sad.

"You didn't do anything." Aurea protested calmly, flexing her hand against his face, letting him know she didn't blame him in the least. It wasn't as though he had shot anything at her. Hell, he'd been protecting her pretty much from the start.

"That's just the point!" His whisper was a harsh one, and he felt the lump rise into his throat again. "I should've be able to protect you! I shouldn't have let them get anywhere NEAR you!"

"Link," Her tone changed, and although her voice was still hoarse, she sounded absolutely serious. "If you keep blaming yourself, I swear I'll beat some sense into you literally, as soon as I'm on my feet." That, he could tell, was not meant as a joke in the least. Whether or not she would really do as she said, the necessary point was made. "Now can we please just go to sleep?" She said more quietly now. For a long time, he didn't dare say a word. Then he gave a very slight smile.

"Sure." Link said. He sat up and removed his hat, gloves, and boots. He didn't stop though, and peeled his white tights, or leggings or whatever they were off and let them lay in a small heap on the floor. Aurea could see why, with the red stains so stark against the white fabric. The Hero of Time laid back down beside her after pulling the thinker blanket up over both of them. His arm found its place back around her waist again, and Aurea snuggled into the warm body next to her.

Shameless Plug: Has anyone checked out my Favorites section of my profile? If so, then look at some of the stuff DuskstarDragon has written, it's funny as hell!


	8. The Probable Future

A/N: Okay, as ever, sorry for the long wait, and I am ever grateful for the reviews I've gotten, it lends all the more encouragement to this writer. Lemme know what you think and remember all flames will be used in this week's weenie-roast!

Chp8: The Probable Future

It was dawn, but the only birds around were not the kind to sing about it. Birds of prey were out now, hoping to find those few stray mice, lizards or insects that dared to go just far enough from the safety of their sandy homes. In fact, there was a red-tailed hawk, a lordly looking creature, perched on the stone windowsill when Link woke up.

It would have been nice to go back to sleep, but now that his eyes had opened, the sharp dawning light, the hawk on the sill staring at him, and maybe at Aurea too, it all refused to let him drift back to bliss. But the past night could not really be called blissful. They had both tucked into the bed long before what they usually would have. Link had not minded and figured that Aurea would most definitely need the rest for recovery sake. He was fairly sure that the woman who still lay sleeping next to him had not awoken all night. Even he, who was no expert in the methods of healing, was sure it was just the stress and pain and everything that had happened all finally coming down on her in one fell swoop; he knew how that felt. Link on the other hand, had repeatedly woken in the evening, during the night, and I the early-morning hours. His mind had not allowed him to sleep fully, working constantly all night.

His thoughts had only paused when his blue eyes opened and saw the hawk sitting there, like a sentinel keeping watch. Link lay there, with one arm around Aurea's waist, and the other cupping her soft cheek; and he stared, or maybe glared, back at the hawk. The bird flicked its long rusty-red tail-feathers, as if brushing aside the young man's look. Link's grip around the woman next to him tightened a little more. His sparkling blue gaze broke with that of the bird's yellow-orange eyes when he felt the warm feminine body next to him move, curling in, and snuggling up closer to him. When he looked up again, it was to see the hawk's back to them now. There almost seemed to be sparks struck out by its sharp talons as it pushed off from the stone sill, sailing off into the sky, so pale blue as to be almost white with the light of day.

After this little event, the Hero of Time was certain he would not get to sleep at all for the rest of this day. But that was okay, he felt the need to be awake and think for a bit before actually getting up and doing anything, even bathing and dressing. He was far too comfortable at the moment to want to move, and far to awake to really pursue sleep. Right now, his mind was turned to something a little more pressing like what to do about Aurea's injured shoulder.

The hand he had had on her waist had trailed up to her arm, and now the very pads of his fingers only dared tease the edges of the bandage. Guilt pecked at him again. Link felt that, if he had been a bit stronger, a bit more sensible, and far more in his right mind, he would have gone out for a blue potion last night, instead of lying here in a restless heap. At the very least a red potion would have initially helped close the wound and keep it from infection. Instead he'd stayed here like a sentimental idiot and…

_And comforted her? Made her feel safe?_ He sighed, not wanting to listen to his more feeling side, even if it was right; it hurt like hell to feel, but lately having the option to feel was a nice one, when she smiled, teased, laughed, hugged him.

Another sigh passed heavily through his body. If he was being practical, the sooner he got that blue potion, the better off Aurea would be. If she had been given the potion immediately after receiving the wound, there would be no problem. But the slower process of healing had already begun, and thus the potion would not work as it normally would; it would take longer now. And he knew perfectly well, as he lay there, still snuggling with her that the more time he lost in this endeavor, the longer her recovery would be.

But she had not wanted to be alone of this he was utterly convinced. That had been why she had not protested in the least to his climbing into bed next to her. He had to smile at this and mentally add, _Especially when we're in a room full of beds._ When he had first met her- ages ago now it seemed- He'd bet she'd have almost literally handed him his backside if he'd even hinted at it. But now? Now, she might just…

Blue eyes shut with self-inflicted irritation. He had to go and get that potion, but he also needed to stay and be sure she was alright. The young Hylian's agitation was broken when he noticed pressure on his lips. He blinked and looked down, realizing he had pressed his lips to her forehead in a gentle subconscious kiss. Had he wholly meant to do that? And now that he took the time to really look, there was a fait color if pink in her cheeks, and she seemed to be smiling a bit. He had all but dared himself to do it again, and Link was not the sort to back down from a challenge. Moving slowly, and carefully, he brought his lips to her cheek this time. A touch of something soft and warm light flower petals in the heat of the afternoon sun; that was the sensation on his mouth. His mind seemed not to want to really focus on anything but how warm and gentle the woman next to him felt. Fingers that were strengthened by years of fighting and hunting did not quite know how to interpret the feel of how a feminine hip curves. It was something new, and not in the least unwelcome. A palm that was calloused and always held a sword was now cupping a tender cheek, while a mouth that had almost forgotten what it was to give a kiss applied such to the opposite cheek. Eventually, Link's lips found their way to Aurea's mouth with a dull burning touch not unlike liquor as it goes down. It was a nice, inviting kind of burn. Strangely, he felt as one might feel after romping around in the snow and ice all day and then coming indoors, about ready to climb right into the fireplace. If that meant he would be burned, Link didn't mind. While all these drugged thoughts and images were idling their way through the Hero's mind, he did not immediately register the small movements next to him.

Aurea was sure she was dreaming- she had to be. Why else would she be laying there in a warm bed curled up against a wonderfully masculine body? There was one of his hands on her hip, and she could feel the other in her hair now. And his warm surprisingly soft lips were on hers. The kiss was not so rough as she thought it would be, hence she was sure this was just a fabulously realistic dream. Well, it was here dream, so she might as well enjoy it, not that there was much if anything to complain about. Aurea angled her head a bit, so they could meet each other with greater ease. Link's hand on her hip squeezed gently. How she knew it was his hand, she did not know, and more over it didn't matter. The young woman's right hand- the one which was still intact- came up with her fingers and palm trails smoothly along fabric of the young male's green tunic, up over his chest. Link's hand in her hair slipped lower to the back of her neck, massaging softly. His other hand now rested in the small of her back, pressing Aurea's body closer to his. Aurea's hand traveled up along his neck to his cheek. Now she could feel the smooth skin, the metal earring in his left ear, the forever-scruffy blonde locks. Her other hand moved, to rub his chest, or to wrap around his ribs perhaps, but with a sharp stab she stopped.

Link's eyes snapped open again when he felt the woman beside him recoil with a sound of pain emitted from somewhere in her throat. Blinking the bleariness from his eyes, he studied her form, trying to figure out what was wrong. The soft hand that had been caressing his face was now clutching painfully at her left shoulder- and there was the mark on her hand, the one that so resembled the Triforce of Power. One or two tears had jumped from her clamped eyes, but his thumb rubbed them away. Her eyes shot open then, as dazzlingly green as grass after a sudden burst of rain, the kind that was just enough to encourage life.

_So it wasn't a dream._ That was her first truly coherent thought. And she couldn't decide if she should be glad or disappointed, since the pain in her shoulder seemed to take nearly all her attention. The bandaged arrow-wound strung like fire, like ice, and a mixture of me scow and iodine with some salt and lemon juice just for spite. Aurea could feel her hand being pried off her bound up shoulder and looked up at Link again. He now looked very awake and sober enough for two people.

"Hey." He said as his left-hand fingers stroked her cheek lightly. "I'd say good morning, if it was one." Aurea's only reaction was to look very puzzled, and wonder if he was referring to the session of making out, or the fact of how it had been disrupted. But no, it couldn't have been the kissing that bothered him, not when he touched his lips to her forehead again, and smiled a little when they were eye to eye again. "Listen," As if she had a choice when she was lying there, still injured, with his hand cupping her face again. "I'm going out. I'm going to get a blue potion for you, alright?"

Aurea blinked a little confused. "What for?" she asked, and elaborated when the Hero of Time looked surprised. "I'm not dying, or something." This statement sounded weak to both the speaker and the listener. Link smiled at her again, and Aurea wondered what precisely was going through his head. That smile was so warm and gentle as to be just a bit sad.

"I want you to feel better." He was honest as his fingers still traced over her cheek and around her lips. Aurea just stared at him. Yes she'd gotten the firm impression he cared, but it was the blatant admission of it that surprised her. Before now, the two of them had only ever danced around the subject. As Link started to get up, Aurea's uninjured arm shot out and caught the front of his tunic. Link had, of course, stopped to stare at her hand fisted in his clothing, and then at her face. Now she had a smile on her face again. The young Hylian had to steady himself as she pulled him back down on the bed towards her. It was a wonderful shock when her lips were on his again, this time by her initiative. They let themselves go in the feeling for a few moments; there was mutual fear of being caught, as though they were under-age children disobeying parents' orders.

When Link stood up gain, it was to the sound of Aurea saying, "Don't forget to wash your tights." There was a smirk in her words, just a small teasing one. Link leaned over and tucked the blanket around her again, smiling more easily now.

"They're leggings, not tights." He corrected her tease. Aurea could only grin and shrug one shoulder.

"Whatever, they're still slinky." They both laughed at that. He leaned his forehead against hers, his pale bangs brushing over her face.

"I'll be back before you know it." He said as he pecked her cheek on last time before turning to wash his leggings and get dressed and get a move on.

"Oh, I'll know it." Aurea remarked loftily and not really sarcastic.

Link had cleaned the blood out of his leggings with the help of some of the strongest soap imaginable. The Gerudo had to have the strongest will among all living things, if they could make and handle soap that could clear away anything as strong as blood with just one washing. As it was, the Hero of Time was wondering if the skin on his hands might crack and fill his gloves with blood if he needed to pick up his sword; his hands ached that much. But these thoughts were temporarily put on the back burner, as he was just about to leave the fortress. There he was sitting astride Epona, ready to get going, when Naburoo of all people came jogging up to him, some length of cloth in her hand.

"Here, put it on." She ordered as she held out what was now revealed to be a long traveling cloak.

Link had taken it, confused as to why he needed such a thing. "Why?" He asked her, and the leader of the dark-skinned thieves rolled her eyes.

"Well if you feel like getting snagged by the idiots they call guards, then be my guest. Otherwise just put it on, and KEEP it on until you get back here."

"And, that'll keep me from getting arrested… how?" He didn't like being all wrapped up like this, but he was fastening the thing around his shoulders all the same. At least it hid the sword, shield, and quiver with the bow and arrows on his back.

"Oh Please!" Naburoo said impatiently. "Do you think they're not out in the fields looking for you? You helped that girl escape, you're an accomplice; at least you are by their logic." She added with a scoff.

"And a black cloak will keep them from finding me?" He was sarcastic now, because he wanted to get a move on, get the damn potion and make Aurea well again.

"Take the road that goes by the woods and through the trees, it'll be harder for them to see you that way and you can move faster if you're not caught." She explained with an irritated edge in her tone. Link had to admit that this was a good idea. Shadow and light usually melded together in the forest until a person couldn't tell one from another, unless they knew what to look for, and how to separate light and dark. He'd bet his life that the guards had never even set foot on ground any closer then half a mile from the forests of this country. After fastening the section that was meant to hide the lower half of the wearer's face, he waved to Naburoo- a gesture of both gratitude and temporary farewell- then nudged Epona with his heels and was gone.

Naburoo stood there for a moment and shook her head, her long vibrant red hair waving. _That boy has fallen HARD!_ She couldn't help thinking, a smile on her face as she walked away from the gates once they had shut again.

Racing hard over a beaten trail, which he suspected only the Gerudo and now he as well knew, Link wondered about all that had occurred lately. Ever since Zelda's death everything he had known seemed wrong, his certainty in all things minor and major had withered and left nothing but questions. Bun since Aurea had shown up almost literally out of the blue, things had been turned upside-down again, leaving things in a right-side-up position. This confused the young male to no end. He had known things were thrown out of balance when Ganondorf- the former holder of the Triforce of Power- had finally been cut down, by Link's own sword. The Princess had told him as much, and being the keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom, she would know such a thing. So naturally he knew, or at least suspected, that the balance was truly damaged when Zelda herself had died. For quite some time, Link had wondered if he would meet his end soon, and then there would be balance again by virtue of the fact that none of the three would be alive.

And then Aurea, the girl with green eyes, rounded ears, fair skin, long brown-and-gold hair, had shown up in Hyrule Field bearing the mark of the Triforce of Power on her right hand. But her power seemed nothing like that of the previous wielder of this strength. Hell, she didn't even LOOK like Ganondorf, and Link felt a bit ridiculous for having ever entertained the idea. The two could not be more opposite. Ganondorf had been obsessed with gaining power and control over all that existed, and doing so by any means necessary. He cared nothing for those he would have to knock down in the process of getting what he wanted. Aurea was quite the reverse. She didn't seem to give a damn about openly controlling others, or for that matter gaining some level of societal merit. Her power was of a more understated nature, the power to bend, to adapt to nearly anything. He had seen this for himself when he first stopped her from going out and sleeping in the stables instead of in the Inn room. Come what may, and let it be fire, tornadoes or torrential rain, she would survive it.

Link rode faster, and hoped her power would stay just as it was, that it could not be changed from what it was now, given her stubborn attitude regarding integrity. There were some rules, which could not be bent and therefore were never to be tested or broken.

And speaking of broken, why was his heart thumping as seemingly loud as it was? It was so loud in his pointed ears that it actually drowned out the sound of Epona's hooves on the turf. And he fervently wished that this road wasn't taking so long.

Aurea was both frustrated and bored, and it was starting to really get at her. She'd wanted to get to her bag and fish out one of her books to read, but she didn't know where her bag had gotten to, and until she found it, she wouldn't be able to occupy her mind with something other than the Hero of Time. It was irritating to know that she was worried about his well-being when he could clearly hold his own far beyond her own abilities.

_Yeah, 'cause that's not an understatement._ She grumbled at herself. When one of the Gerudo women came in and set a breakfast tray down in front of her, Aurea had asked about her backpack. But her inquiry was brushed aside as if it were a particle of dust drifting in the air. The woman had told her not to worry, and that she ought to be resting and getting her strength back rather that wasting her time reading stories.

Well, Aurea was surely resting- since there was nothing else to do- but her rest was anything but peaceful. Without a book, or anything else to focus on, she was acutely aware of the throbbing pain in her left shoulder. And for some unknowable reason, horrible images of Link being caught, or struck with arrows, or any number of other unpleasant things kept creeping up to the surface of her mind, when she wasn't trying her best to think on something else. With a rush of air through her lungs, Aurea wondered what she wouldn't give for some peace of mind.

And it was at this point that the door swung open. Aurea's head snapped around so fast, that anyone else would have thought she'd broken her neck doing so; she was that high-strung. It was, of course, a Gerudo woman, but to Aurea's eyes they all looked so much alike that it was difficult to tell one from another until you got to know them. It was the same way the typical American views an Asian, or vise versa, no ill will intended it was just a thought process.

"Hi." She greeted, since there was no sense in being rude, and since she owed them big anyway.

"Good afternoon." The woman returned the gesture with a smile as she came closer.

Aurea blinked. "Afternoon?" Had it really been that long since the morning?

"Yes." The woman said as she took a seat on the edge of the bed. "I'm Naburoo." She said by way of introduction. "We didn't have the opportunity to meet yesterday."

It took Aurea a moment to match the name to its proper meaning, but it startled her a bit when it finally clicked. "So, you're the leader of the Gerudo, right?" It felt strange asking her this, like asking a celebrity if they had been the one who stared in some film or other. And then there was the polite nod, confirming her question had indeed sounded stupid. Even so, Aurea managed to regain some of her composure with a smile. "Well, just for the record, I owe you big."

But to Aurea's surprise, Naburoo shook her head, sending the long red ponytail swaying. "You were being hunted and injured, and besides," Now her expression had faded form sympathetic to an odd combination of mischievous and proud. "You're defying that idiot who calls himself Emperor." No, that look was not exactly mischievous, it was a hint. "We need to stick together you know." And she winded one sharp eye.

Aurea stared at her for a moment more, and then a slow smile washed over her face. "True, true." She agreed with a look not unlike that of the other woman. "So assuming I'm not going to kick the bucket," She gestured to her arm. "Or that I won't die of boredom, what's out next step?"

"For the moment, we stay quiet, and keep our eyes and ears open." Naburoo could tell she was surprising the young woman more and more by the minute. "There's a lot to be learned when people think they're all alone. We might find some useful information."

"Scout and spy." Aurea muttered thoughtfully, then shrugged. "Best we can do at this point; I mean, without ding something stupid." This conversation was long since circular, and they both knew it when a heavy silence settled like a thick layer of dust in a sealed and forgotten room. Aurea's fingers lightly touched the edge of her bandages, and her expression turned sour again. "I'm losing my marbles." She muttered, and didn't seem to care that she was heard.

"And what makes you say that?" Nabooru asked, half-hoping this wasn't going to be a long, drawn-out discussion of conflicting emotions. Thankfully, it wasn't.

"I'm just going through a little more than I can handle right now. Wish I could find one of my books, then I wouldn't have to break my brain over it." Aurea still sounded sullen, and even a bit ill tempered, but not really angry. If Naburoo had been about seven years older, she would have said Aurea was just being moody, but she knew better. She'd been through it herself. At one point or another, she'd felt overwhelmed as if by a tidal wave, and had gone off on her own to train until she was ready to drop to the ground and sleep for a night and a day.

"Where did you lave them?" Naburoo asked, feeling sympathetic, almost maternal.

"In my backpack, but I don't know where that's gotten to." Aurea sighed.

"You mean that odd pack you were carrying?"

"Yeah."

"It's at the foot of your bed."

Aurea blinked and leaned as far over as she could without inflicting too much pain. Now she could see the strap of the bag around the corner of her bed. "Jeez, I feel dumb." She remarked, as the Gerudo leader brought the ting within easy reach now. "Thanks." Aurea said with a smile.

"Don't mention it." Nabooru said. "Area you hungry for lunch?" She asked more brusquely, remembering why she'd come in here in the first place.

"Yeah actually." Aurea hadn't eaten much that morning, since her mind had been so utterly focused on trying not to worry.

"I'll go find something for you." Nabooru said, having risen to her feet and now pausing at the door. She'd glanced back at the girl in the bed and had noticed her pulling a hardcover volume from the strangely shaped bag. She dimly noticed Aurea thanking her. She was more intrigued by the imaged on the front of the book. It was some sketchy drawing of a child, or maybe a woman with a set of wings that looked as if they'd sprouted right out of her back, and tears in her gray eyes and running down her granite cheeks. To her, it was a fairy of stone, crying forever more, and the image was a surprisingly striking one. Nabooru was out the door and far down the hall when she seemed to come back to herself, and wondered about the book and what it might contain. No magic books she'd seen had an image like that, not on the cover nor in its pages. Then again, she reasoned as she turned a corner, magic was never really her strong subject of study.

The sun had set, but that didn't stop the Hero of Time from riding as fast as he could. The day's events could not have gone more smoothly. He'd ridden up to the closest point where the forested ended and left Epona there. Steady, strong, and trusty as she was, a red mare with white mane and tail was sure to be noticed, which was the last thing he wanted. Nobody had stopped him on his brisk walk through Hyrule Field, and getting past the Castle Market Town gates had proved no difficulty either. It had taken a good deal of precious time to locate an establishment that carried what he hunted for, and a few extra rupees had ensured the shopkeeper's silence as well. And yet, something was just wrong about it all. Even after he'd gotten his hands on a blue potion, never mind that it was expensive, he'd been uneasy. Why had security been so damned lax? Was it normal that they let in a cloaked and masked stranger, especially when he'd had to dress in drag just to get the hell out with Aurea? It still stung his pride thinking about it, but he could overlook that little incident and mentally write it off as that tired and ironic phrase, "a necessary evil." And although he took the forest trail for the return trip, something was clearly wrong. Why weren't the guards chasing him? Hell he hadn't even seen any wanted posters of himself or Aurea for that matter. They wee being hunted, and it seemed that only they and their pursuers knew it.

It was a little after twilight when he could see the Gerudo Fortress again, he was nearly safe. Feeling worlds more at ease than he had all day, Link pulled the cloth mask from his nose and mouth, and yanked the hood back, allowing the wind to thread its way through his hair like fingers. The damned thing had kept him safe, though feeling closed-in all day and now at the Gerudo Fortress gates, he felt not only allowed to breath again, but also the need of it, like he'd been holding his breath for the whole day.

Once inside the gates, he waved his thanks to the women on the high walls, who waved back and a few of them even blew kisses. Not that he was paying attention as he dismounted and had to wrestle with the clasp on the cloak for a moment before the thing finally decided to give in and release the young man. His jog up to the infirmary was not as panicked as it had been the previous day. This was a little more relaxed, as though he had somewhere to be, but not urgently. Aurea was safe, in good hands. Nabooru, he was sure, would have seen to whatever she needed. He was quiet when he entered the place of healing, hoping he didn't disturb anyone else who might be hurt. But luck still seemed to be on his side, since it was clear from a quick glance that Aurea was the only one here. Even so, he was taking soft little cat-steps over to her bed. Link's long pointed ears had picked up the sound of her even breathing and from the relaxed look of her face, and also the fact that her eyes were closed, she was asleep. For the moment, his good sense told him not to disturb her. Carefully setting the potion down on the table next to her bed, Link took a seat on the edge beside her. The image before him was an odd, almost unnerving one to behold. He had only just now noticed the book she still held with its pages open against her chest. It was like seeing an actress in a play or a dream, watching her lying there with the book held to her heart like a lady's silk fan, or like a shield with a lopsided crest. There was the picture of something, or someone looking out at him from the cover. A child or a woman with feathery wings unfurled from her back, crying her almost living tears out of eyes cast in stone. Strange how that sketchy picture rested right over the place where her heart was still beating.

It was impossible to say if he had been sitting there a minute or an hour once he'd shaken himself from his reverie. Priorities were priorities, he reminded himself. And even if he disliked the fact of it, he had to wake her to give her the potion. His hand seemed to reach out as if he were a numb puppet, and then he paused. He retracted it and pulled the rough leather gloves from both his hands. This served the dual purpose of avoiding any rougher-than-necessary awakening and to also allow him to feel her warm soft skin. It hadn't been as hard as he'd thought, when he finally, really admitted to himself that Aurea was attractive and more over, that he was very attracted to her. Her looks were exotic for Hyrule, but it wasn't just that. It was that invisible wall she'd put up around herself, and only let him see through a few times; he could understand the feelings she had constantly warring within her. He'd been dealing with the same conflicting emotions ever since the Princess had died; maybe he had been even before then, it was hard and painful to think that far in the past.

Awareness was brought back to the young Hylian as he registered the feel of her cheek under his fingers. From Link's own perspective, his whole body felt rigid and clumsy. What was he so nervous about? It wasn't as though this was the first time he'd woken her up, although it might well be the first time he'd managed it without physical injury. A set of blue eyes glanced down at the gook in her good hand again. It might just be best of he eased that way from her first, so she wouldn't end up braining him with it out of pure reaction.

_Knowing her, she might just do it anyway._ He thought with a mental sigh, and didn't notice that his own lips were smiling, albeit wryly. With his free hand, he took a firm grip on one corner of the book and started to ease it away from her fingers. The young woman on the bed emitted a soft, sleepy kind of groan. But just when he though she would wake up and be furious, she merely turned her head and successfully pinned his other hand- which had been stroking her cheek- between her face and the pillow. The thought of just how ridiculous this was getting had just crossed his mind when he felt the flicker of eyelashes on his palm.

"… Hey girl." Link said hesitantly as her eyes opened fully. Aurea blinked and to his relief, actually smiled.

"Not such a girl." She was lucid enough to remind him. And Link smiled at that, knowing he was not about to suffer her wrath at having been woken up.

"How're you feeling?" He asked, and felt a tad awkward when he kept his hand cupping her cheek; his other hand had abandoned the book.

"Honestly?" Aurea said with arched eyebrows. "I've been better." She remarked as she set the book with its pages open against her lap and used her good arm to straighten herself up into a sitting position. For a time, there was a silence and to Link, it was a kind of uneasiness too. The young injured woman kept staring at him as though she expected to find something, some imperfection or other. Finally, she spoke. "Are you alright? You look odd."

Link just shook his head and grabbed the potion off the bedside table. "You need to drink this." He said as he passed the bottle into her right hand. To his surprise, Aurea took a moment to look at it. It was sort of fascinating every time he saw that confused expression on her face.

For herself, Aurea was surprised. She had a pretty good idea of what she was holding. Link had handed her a Blue Potion, the real thing, and it amazed her. Even after being here for as long as she had, it was a shock to know that she could still be surprised.

"Just one problem." She said, handing it back to him. Link looked puzzled, and at the same time wildly disbelieving. Aurea smiled at this. "I need two hands to open it, you know that." She had to hold in her laughter at the expression on this face then. Heaven help her, Link could be just hysterical sometimes. Quickly as he could without spilling any of its contents, the Hero of Time uncorked the bottle and passed it back into his companion's good hand. When she brought it close to her mouth, her nose caught a whiff of the stuff. It smelled both sweet, and acrid, like burned sugar, with something spicy, green peppers perhaps, and something in the citrus family; maybe lemon polish had been added to it, or maybe it was orange-flower water.

"Just drink it." Link urged, practically ready to go over the edge. "You'll feel better for it." At that, Aurea heaved a sigh, and made up her mind to just get it over with. It was lucky she poured the whole bottle into her mouth all at once, because he'd have never gotten her to voluntarily take the stuff again. The bottle was almost flung out of her hand, just as said appendage was slapped over her mouth. Tears had sprung into her grass-green eyes. Link had a feeling this might happen, so he placed his hand over the one she already had over her mouth. "Swallow." He all but ordered. She was actually leaning forward into his right hand, while his left had come up and was softly stroking her back. After a moment, he saw the movement of her throat that indicated swallowing. "All of it." He now DID order, not letting his hands up until she did. When she was finally through downing the horrid stuff, she had just enough breath to ask for water. Link had eased her back onto the pillows and poured some cool clear water into a cup, both of which he'd found at the other end of the room. When he returned, she was still breathing hard; clearly, the taste of the potion had gotten to her. Link tried not to smile, since he could sympathize on that, the stuff did taste awful. The young man leaned over and circled his arm around her waist, helping her sit up, his other hand pressed the rim of the cup to her lips. But Aurea, being the stubbornly independent person she was, didn't sip. Instead, she brought her hand up and took the cup from his hand, tending to her thirst on her own, even if that was all she could do for now. When it was empty, he took it from her and set it on the bedside table before easing her down to the mattress and pillows again. For a long moment, staring at her, watching her breath, was the only thing he seemed able to do. But before too long, his gaze fell on the bandages still wrapped snuggly around her left shoulder. The Hero's shaky fingers nevertheless made quick work of untying the bindings and the sling only to reveal the pale skin beneath. The only sign that anything had ever been wrong was the very palest kind of scar, the sort that looked faintly silver, when in full moonlight. Realizing this, he looked up, and out of the window, to see a fat, though not full moon still low in the eastern sky. Had that much time really passed? It felt almost impossible. With a sigh, he stood up from the bed, but only to remove his hat, sword, shield, and boots. Then, feeling a little suffocated, even under just his usual clothes, Link pulled off his green tunic. The moment he glanced back at the bed, color rose in his face. Apparently, Aurea had been watching him the whole time, since her beautiful eyes stayed on him even now. A soft smile played around her lips, and it just then occurred to him that he was smiling too, despite the feeling of unreasonable embarrassment. _Why should I feel bad?_ He pondered as he lifted the covers and slid into the bed beside her. The young woman next to him immediately snuggled right up against him. Link was laying on his left side, while Aurea rested on her right side; the pair of them were facing each other even though nothing was really happening.

This was a surprisingly awkward kind of moment for both teens. For although they both wanted to say something, neither could think of anything to say, so no words came forth. Aurea was not looking the young man in the face. For whatever reason, she simply felt incapable of doing so. Instead her eyes stayed half-open and occupied by watching his throat move when he swallowed, and his chest swell and fall with his breath. Her mind was working in overtime, wondering what was going on, why she and Link were nearly killed, how she might ever hope to go back to the way things used to be, and what- in the name of all things sacred- she was doing here in the first place. The feeling of movement on her waist seemed to snap her out of her thoughts.

Aurea blinked and looked down towards her hips. There was Link's arm wrapped tightly around her midsection. It wasn't as though the limb was just resting there either, his hand was pressing warmly into the small of her back. As Aurea looked up to Link's face, she both felt and saw his left hand move in between her cheek and the pillow. She stared up into his face, and it was clear that the gesture of tenderness was not lost on her.

Link was on edge, and about ready to fall completely over. He wanted any number of things: He wanted to feel her whole and solid in his arms, to let her know she was safe, to tell her that he cared, he gave a damn and make sure she'd sit in front of him anytime they went riding from now on. But there were things he also wanted to know. Link needed to know what was going through her head right now, to know what her reaction would be if he refused to let her go at any point this night, to know if she would let all of what had happened really break her. Most of all, Link wanted to know something deeply serious, something that was not even a substantiated possibility: If she could, would she go back to her home, to her country or whatever she called home? Just then, he felt her nuzzling her face softly against his neck; the sensation left heat burning in his cheeks. And what was her hand doing on his chest like that? Not that he minded her soft touches in the least. Link felt his own hand rubbing up and down over her waist and hip. What did one call these actions?

"Mmm, you're cuddly tonight." Aurea's voice sounded sleep-fogged in Link's long pointed ears. Cuddling, was that what they were doing? The concept felt foreign to him. But it was odd. The idea of curling up with someone like this had of course crossed his mind innumerable times before, but it had never actually happened; at least, it hadn't until now, until Aurea fell into his life.

The young Hylian's eyes slid shut as he pressed his lips to her forehead and deeply inhaled the scent of her hair. Vaguely, re noticed that Aurea was kissing his throat in return. When the real realization hit his brain, Link felt kind of shuddering rush go through him. It felt great, and he knew he'd want more. It would have been a surprise when he felt her left arm resting gingerly on his ribs, but his mind was a haze of pleasure, warmth and breath. Neither he nor the woman lying alongside him wanted to call a halt to this, it all felt so good- so very right.

Again Link was the first to wake the next morning, but this time, he found himself incapable of sitting up. All was immediately explained when he glanced down towards his torso and found a mass of brownish-gold hair obscuring his vision.

_Alright,_ He though while grinning to himself, _So I make a good pillow._ And not wanting to wake his companion, Link resigned himself to just lie there and stroke her long hair. If experience had taught him anything about her, it was that it was best to let her sleep as long as she wished.


	9. Breakfast and a Bath

Chapter 9

It must've been only minutes later when Link opened his eyes again, but this time something was different- something was lacking. But how could anything be missing? He was snuggled in against Aurea's warm soft body, nothing could be wrong. But as the aroma of cinnamon, sugar, and hot bread ticked his nose, a rumble from the region of his gut told Link exactly what was missing. Presently, there were soft feet padding across the floor and up to the bed. The young hero groaned in protest as the bed shifted under the new weight.

"C'mon, rise and shine sleepy-head." Said Aurea's voice, tickling his long pointed ear.

Link groaned again as her soft warm hand gently touched his shoulder. "Mmm, sleep now, breakfast later." He mumbled as he snuggled deeper into her warm body. Aurea gave a soft chuckle as she leaned into his back and put her arms around his shoulders. Link felt her kiss the place where his jaw connected with the rest of his throat, and he groaned pleasantly again. _Wait a minute._ His brain said, starting to definitely wake up now. _If I'm lying on top of her then how?_ The gears in his mind where starting to work properly now, and he opened his foggy-blue eyes to look first over his shoulder. Well, there was Aurea, her long hair pulled back from her face, a sly smile on her lips, those green eyes glittering. The young Hylian blinked a few times to make sure his vision was perfectly clear. Then he looked down at what he was cuddled up to. Heat flared up in his face at the dawning comprehension. Well, maybe it wasn't so surprising. After all, the pillow was just as warm and soft as Aurea. He looked back over his shoulder again to see her grinning somewhat smugly down at him. Today she was wearing that strange sleeve-less thing she called a tank-top and those rough blue pants she called blue-jeans. It was a bit odd seeing her in something she called normal, as opposed to what the rest of the population called normal. Link blinked again to make sure his sight was completely clear.

"Dreaming, were you?" Now that was a tease and as a rebuttal, the blonde man buried his head under that warm soft pillow. "You have to come out of there some time." Aurea reminded him as she lifted one corner of the soft barrier.

"No I don't." Link grumbled as he pulled the pillow back into place.

Deciding that this was now ridiculous, Aurea came to the conclusion that she needed to try the direct approach. Sitting up, just to be on the safe side, she reached out and began tickling him around the ribs. The effect was instantaneous. Link bolted up so fast that the pillow sailed over her head and landed on the other side of the room.

"Cheating!" He gasped between fits of laughter as he tried to seize her shameless hands. But Aurea would not be caught just yet, and with one hand she pinned him by the wrists, while the other continued to tease him. But since they were only playing around, Aurea's grip wasn't nearly strong enough to hold him down. And the Hero of Time quickly worked his hands loose to catch her around the waist and give back as good as he got. When a truce was eventually reached, they both just sat there, still laughing and trying to catch their breath.

"So," Aurea finally calmed down enough to put her hands on her hips and attempt to look severe- with little success. "Are you coming to breakfast or not?"

Link cocked his head to one side and look at her with amused blue eyes. "Well, since I'm clearly not going back to sleep…" And they both laughed heartily again.

"Aw darn, that means I don't get to eat your breakfast too." At the startled look on Link's face, Aurea laughed again. "What?"

He looked critically over her figure for a moment before saying anything. "I swear you have hollow bones."

"What?" Now she couldn't help thinking, _That came outta left field_.

"You eat like I do, and I'm a bottomless pit." His hands came up to her trim waist. "Where does it all go?" There was that playful smirk on his face again.

"It's called working it off, that's the whole point of eating." Aurea chuckled as she slid off the bed and stood up again.

"I thought the whole point of eating was so you wouldn't be hungry." Link joked again as he got up and pulled his tunic back over his head. When he looked up again from notching his belt around his waist, Aurea was giving him an odd look. It wasn't angry or upset, but it was a more negative form of curious. "What?" He asked, when lack of patience finally got the best of him.

"When was the last time you washed that thing?" Aurea asked with one eyebrow cocked.

"Uh…" Oh Jeez, he had to think about that one as he followed her into the kitchen next door. Aurea was looking expectantly at him again. To avoid this, Link's eyes went to stare at the patterns in the wooden table he now sat at. Silence had descended and for some reason heat rose in his face as the lack of sound progressed. The young man's hand was rubbing the back of his neck subconsciously now as Aurea sat a plate of still-steaming buns on the table.

"You're taking a bath today mister." She stated. And Link knew by the tone in her voice that there was no room for argument.

"Do I get breakfast first?" He asked, a bit sheepishly.

"Well Duh!" Aurea replied, grinning as he finally looked up. For a few long moments, they just sat there smiling to each other. It was as though they were having a pleasant conversation, except that nothing was actually spoken. Presently Link's grin broadened a bit more and he sighed, breaking the silence. "Eat your breakfast buddy. It'll get cold if we let it." Aurea remarked as she picked up one of the buns and started munching on it. Link was a little surprised that she didn't seem to notice that her hands were getting all sticky thanks to whatever she had smeared on the buns earlier. It looked to him like some thin white glue or something. The whole pastry itself was a bit odd. It was a big round spiral of soft bread with cinnamon and sugar lining the inside and that sticky white substance drizzled over the top in the messiest manner possible.

"So, what is this again?" Link asked as he picked one up. The thing got sticky-stuff on his fingers the second he touched it.

"They're cinnamon rolls." She replied before taking another bite of her own. It was sort of cute to see her with that funny white stuff on the corner of her mouth. It was, he concluded, like seeing a little kid get desert smeared all over her face. There was just something adorable about it. "Okay, what now?" Aurea asked when Links started to chuckle about it.

"You have," He gestured to the corner of his own mouth. "Stuff, on your face."

"Stuff?" Aurea remarked, and grinned even wider when her breakfast companion actually snorted out a laugh. "What kind of stuff?" She asked, grinning at the fact that the young Hylian's face was now turning red. Oh Goddesses in Heaven above help him, this was embarrassing as hell.

"Like, uh…" He gestured mutely to the sweet white stuff on his own cinnamon roll.

"Oh, you mean the icing." It wasn't a question, but rather a confirmation of fact, and Link nodded, glad that that was over. "And what were you thinking this stuff was?" Aurea asked as she pointed to her own grinning face. The young man snorted again and was so embarrassed that he'd fully intended to fold his arms and lay them on the table so that he might bury his bright red face in them. What actually happened was somewhat different. Instead of burying his face in his arms, he ended up face-first in his half-eaten breakfast. He only tried to look up when he heard Aurea trying her damnedest not to laugh. And he shortly realized that the remainder of the cinnamon roll was stuck to his forehead, adding a kind of odd injury to insult, as it chose that moment to fall off his face and back onto the plate. Aurea attempted one serious look at him, and lost it amid a fit of giggles. She didn't even notice when the Hero of Time, and now Desecrator of Pastries, got up and walked around the table to her side.

"You think this is funny?" He asked, arching one icing-caked eyebrow. Aurea giggled unintelligibly as she nodded.

"Now you really do need a bath." She laughed again.

"So do you." He remarked, touching the corner of her mouth where a small spot of icing remained. And before she could say or do anything, Link had swooped in and planted a long, firm, open-mouthed kiss on the corner of her mouth. Aurea could feel his tongue licking her there in long fluid strokes, and closed her eyes with the feeling. Soon, her lips found his, still tasting of sugar and cinnamon. Her hands, though still sticky, found their way into his scruffy blonde hair, as Link's found a path around her waist and between her shoulder-blades. Both of them lost themselves in a sea of feelings, soft touches and kisses, at least until they had to part for breath. Each one watched the other breathe heavily for a few minutes, neither one saying a word.

"Okay," Aurea said through a happy sigh. "Now we both really need a bath." And with that, she disengaged herself from his lap, without ever quite figuring out how she'd ended up there.

Finding the bathing rooms had proved embarrassing if nothing else. A male and female wandering around the Gerudo Fortress while covered in cinnamon, sugar, and icing was odd enough; or maybe it was just a way to provoke naughty thoughts. But to be doing so and asking anyone they passed which way the baths were located? Well, what little reputation they had as pure and innocent was quickly and effectively squashed. Most of the women they tried to explain the situation to, giggled hard behind their hands before directing them somewhere. By the time they finally did find the baths, the two teens were blushing as much as if they'd run 2 miles, and downed a gallon of Tabasco sauce each.

"Do you think they'll ever believe we haven't, uh… you know?" Aurea asked, her voice unsteady with embarrassment.

"If it were about anyone but us, would you believe it?" Link asked by way of answering her question. Aurea let out a rough laugh as she shook her head.

For the first time, she took a real look around the room. It wasn't all that large, but certainly large enough to fit a big, sunk-in tub taking up at least half the room. The basin of the bathtub was a soft rosy color, and there was a water pump beside it so that it could be easily filled. There were fluffy towels in an off-white color, neatly folded and stacked on a bench in one corner of the room. On the opposite wall were some odd wooden slats that she supposed functioned as blinds to block some of the light, at least during part of the afternoon. What Aurea couldn't seem to locate was a screen, patrician, or any kind of barrier. She was getting the feeling she'd been set up by the majority of the occupants of the Gerudo Fortress. Especially when she spotted the long, thin shelf on the far side of the tub under the wooden blinds. It was a narrow shelf that ran the length of the tub and was closely lined with differently colored, sized, and shaped bottles. Her first thought was bath oils, or maybe lotion, but her nerves –and the butterflies in her stomach- hoped that they were just soaps and stuff like that.

With a steadying breath in, Aurea walked up to the pump and started working it to get the water moving and the bath filled.

"Here," Link said walking over, since he'd been looking around the room too. "I can do that."

"No sir." Aurea said in a business-like tone, even though she was smiling. "You're getting out of those clothes and into the tub." _Please tell me I did not just say that!_ She screamed in her mind. She was able to keep her head down and pretend to be watching the progress of the tub, even though she was only trying to hide her blushing cheeks.

Link just stood there for a moment, stunned into silence. _Did she really just say that?_ He wanted to ask, but had the good sense to restrain himself. He turned so that his back was to her and unfastened the belt at his waist, letting it drop to the tiled floor where it clanked once then lay silent. The water was still going through the pump- he could hear it- which meant that Aurea hadn't paused in her actions. Still feeling as awkward as if he was in front of a crowd, the young Hylian pulled his green tunic over his head, and then chanced a glance over his shoulder. But the look was so quick that he couldn't be sure if he had really seen her look away just then. The idea that she'd been watching him undress, well, it set his heart thumping hard in his chest. It didn't seem to matter that he told himself he wasn't sure, his body and mind seemed certain that the young woman was still eyeing him carefully. He could feel the tension mounting between his shoulders, and did his best not to let it show.

Aurea was doing her best not to be distracted, but it wasn't easy when a fine specimen of manhood was undressing maybe 6 or so feet from her. Add to that the fact that he was a nice guy, tough as nails, brave, and just about all the rest of it… He was a nice package in more ways than one. Aurea tried not to blush even more at that thought. If this kept up, she's probably end up with her face looking so red that she'd lose all feeling in her limbs from lack of blood. She heard- rather than saw- her companion step into the bath, and taking care to keep her eyes averted, she stopped pumping the water and moved to collect the discarded clothes.

"Uh, you know I'm going to need those eventually." Link's voice from behind her prompted the reflex for Aurea to look back over her shoulder. Link was sitting shoulder-deep in the water, but that really only hid him from about the chest down. She swore her face was going to catch fire in a minute.

"I'm jut going to wash them." Aurea said, and then, very deliberately took a thoughtful sniff, and made a face. "Frankly, they need it." Link was blushing and had sunk to his chin in the water.

As Aurea came to the edge of the tub again, Link couldn't help but notice that she was keeping her head down. It was like she was trying to use the surface of the water as a mirror.

_Do I really make her that nervous?_ It wasn't the first time this question crossed his mind, and he doubted it would be the last. She was perched on the edge of the tub, up to her elbows in water. He could see her submerged hands trying to scrub the remnants of cinnamon out of the battered fabric. A grin split his features, making him relax as he remembered how that substance had gotten there. It served to remind him that he probably needed to wash his hair too, since- he brought one hand up to feel near his scalp- yep, there was some of the sticky stuff embedded in his blonde lion's mane. Still grinning, he submerged himself completely in the water, and sat there holding his breath for a few minutes. He had the feeling that even in the pleasantly cool water, he'd never get the heat out of his face. While still under water, he did his best to scrub his hands through his hair roughly, not jut to get cleaned up, but alto to distract himself a bit. He needed to think what hey had to do next. The self-appointed Emperor had set out to either kidnap, or kill Aurea, why? What had she ever done? For that matter, how did he know anything about her, and why did he seem to think she was essential to… to what? All he knew for sure was that it involved some kind of ritual, but that could mean any number of things.

He could feel his lungs starting to protest to their immobile state and Link let his face break the surface of the water. As he looked over the narrow shelf of bottles, he couldn't help feeling like he had far more questions than answers in the predicament. Maybe he'd ask Nabooru later on, get her opinion of the situation. Yeah, hat would help; Nabooru was good with that brand of planning and tactical thinking. His ocean eyes paused on a bottle that had the look of a woman's sleek, curvy dress. The liquid inside was clear and tinged a delicate shade of peach. It reminded him of…

Link glanced back over his shoulder to where Aurea was now wringing out his tunic. A rumbling from some where in the region of his stomach told him he was still hungry, although he had a funny feeling that mere food would not be enough. And focusing his eyes determinedly back on the shelf of bottles, he wondered when the water ha started feeling so cold, or when the air outside of it had become so warm. _Where's the soap?_ He wondered, studying the narrow shelf more carefully. But he couldn't find anything that looked like something as simple as a bar of soap. There was only that continuous cluster of odd bottles. "Uh, there's no soap." He voiced aloud and looked around in time to catch Aurea pausing in the act of hanging his tunic up to dry. Had she really been scrubbing it that long?

"Um, here, pick one out." Aurea said as she gave the damp garment one more firm tug to get the last of the wrinkles out. Looking to the shelf again, Link selected one at random. It turned out to be a thin bottle in the shape of a lady's folding-fan, and stained an opaque sea green color. When he turned back, Aurea was already perched on the edge of the tub again, and held out her hand for the bottle. The young Hylian was confused beyond words as he watched her uncork the bottle, bring it to her nose, and take a careful sniff. She seemed to consider the bottle's contents through one eye, then shook a dollop of it onto her other hand.

"What are you up to?" Link had been watching her silently until now, as Aurea began to rub the substance vigorously between her slender hands.

"Well this is either shampoo or soap." She finally said as she opened her palms and examined them.

"You can tell that just by smelling it?" He sounded stunned.

"No." The young woman grinned a little and showed him her hands, which where covered in suds. "Now get over here." She sounded business-like again.

"Hunh?" Link's face was burning, he was sure of it. Here they were, a man and a woman, she with her hands soapy, he without a stitch of clothing on, and nothing between them but a tub of water.

"Well, I'm not wasting it, and besides I can scrub your hair and back better than you can." Aurea said in a very matter-of-fact tone, although he couldn't have missed the pinkness in her cheeks. Knowing it would be no good arguing with her, the Hero of Time heaved a sigh, and drifted over to the side of the tub. He did however take care to keep his back to her and keep his legs bent; just to be sure she couldn't see anything. Link felt those gentle hands weave into his hair, right down to his scalp, long nails scraping gently, soft fingers massaging every now and again. It felt great, and he dimly registered the feeling of his head leaning back to rest against the tiled edge of the tub and just brush her knees, his eyes slipping shut.

Only when the young woman above and behind him giggled, did he open his eyes and try to clear the haze his mind had wandered blissfully into. "You looked like you were having the best dream in the world." She teased as she pushed gently on his shoulders in order to make him sit up.

"Maybe I was." The young man remarked smilingly as he felt her soap-slicked hands run over his back. Something rougher than her hands was being used this time, probably a washcloth he thought. Far from feeling overbearing, this was also like a massage, particularly since the sensation ran up between his shoulder blades, overt he muscles in his shoulders themselves, and back down over the back of his ribs. It made him want to arch his spine and give a pleasant kind of groan, and resisting that impulse was getting more and more difficult.

And then… "Okay, now rinse off, and I'll get you a towel." Aurea's voice said, and it took him a long minute to register the words' meaning. With an internal groan, Link sank to the bottom again and ran his hands forcefully through his hair to clear the soap away. Aurea was just done scrubbing and was now wringing out his white shirt. Clearly, he'd have to wait on getting dressed again. It crossed his mind to get out of the tub and snatch a towel for himself, but his better sense squashed this idea, since the towels were located several feet away, and clearly beyond his reach. He could just picture the result of her turning at precisely the right moment to catch an eyeful of him. Remembering the first time she'd woken up next to him, he had the fleeting mental impression of the entire Gerudo Fortress crumbling under the intense pressure of Aurea's scream. "You're going to have to get outta there some time." Aurea's voice broke through his musings and a blush actually touched his face, seeing her near the edge of the tub again.

The young woman was doing something very odd, and Link found himself wishing fervently to fix that image immovably in his mind. She was holding up a large fluffy towel at arm's length in front of her wit her head turned away, eyes clamped tightly closed. It would almost be worth the inevitable scream if he could find a way to make her look at him just now. Airing on the side of caution, the Hero of Time took the towel from her and dried off a bit before wrapping it around his waist, to preserve modesty.

"You can look now." He told his female friend and had a good deal of trouble forcing down the urge to bust a gut when she carefully peeped one eye open. "What?" he said as a flush crept up her face, or rather the part of her face that was visible. "It's only skin." Link said, holding his arms out for emphasis. The blush on Aurea's cheeks deepened.

"You know darn good and well 'What.'" She said a little testily, a little sharply, and very nervously. This sounded so practiced, so very cliché, that Link could not help laughing at that. Even her punching his left bicep did nothing to reign in his mirth. "Now turn around will you?" Link was still grinning and snickering, even as he arched one eyebrow. "I need a bath too, you dolt." She reminded him with a gesture to her clothes and hair, which still had cinnamon stuck here and there. The young Hylian brought his left hand up to his mouth to muffle his amusement a little. Only when she put her hands on his broad shoulders and turned him, did he face the wall and door, rather than the tub. The water was still just clear enough that she could bath with it, so while constantly checking over her shoulder, Aurea stripped out of her clothes and slipped into the water.

The young woman was what she considered ridiculously nervous. Link wasn't a bad guy after all. Hadn't he wanted to see her when she'd been shot? Hadn't they had to practically sit on him to keep him out? Hadn't he rescued her from that damned dungeon.? Hadn't he protected her when the soldiers came looking for her? All of this passed through her mind as she drifted over to the shelf of oils and soaps. Hadn't Link been a good person, through everything?

As she thought this, Aurea's eyes settled on a black bottle, with a golden-looking stopper. It seemed to be in the shape of a heart, or bosom, or something. Uncorking it, she took a delicate sniff. It was as though the scent curled itself inside her nose, and her lungs, the way a cat curls up in the sun. It smelled of citrus fruits, and flowers, and some sort of perfume. And it was perhaps the oddest thing that it was not a strong scent, but one that was soft and alluring. She poured out a good-sized dollop of the stuff, which turned out to have a purple hue so dark it was nearly midnight-colored. Aurea rubbed the stuff into her long brownish-gold hair, and scrubbed her nails against her scalp purposefully. She barely noticed when a pair of very masculine hands touched her shoulders gently.

It was as though she was coming slowly out of a younger girl's daydream. "Link?" Aurea said vaguely as she looked up at him, upside down and smiling a little. Even the blush in her face, neck, and chest felt nice, warming, rather than embarrassing.

"Want me to scrub your back?" The Hero of Time asked, warmth still evident in his cheeks. At any other place, in any other time, Aurea might've smacked him silly. But just now, it sounded like a really nice idea. Still, she was lucid enough to bring her arms up to cross over her bare breasts as she sat up in the water, letting him see her back. The young woman cold hear Link gulp audibly, and feel his hands shaking as he gathered her wet hair and draped it over one shoulder. Aurea felt a shiver pass through her, deeper than her very bones, as his warm soap-slicked hands rubbed and scrubbed gently over her skin. Aurea wasn't sure how long the feeling lasted; it could have been two minutes or two weeks. But she finally came to herself a little more and brusquely asked Link to hand over her discarded clothes. "Sure." He choked out from somewhere deeper than his throat.

Aurea drifted a little away from the edge of the tub, where she was sure Link still sat, and began to scrub the cinnamon out of her clothing. She hadn't even bothered to rinse the strange-smelling soap out of her own hair yet. The bubbles it left sliding down her neck and between her shoulder blades somehow felt like his hands, and not at the same time. Or was that her long soapy hair? She wasn't sure and it didn't seem to matter very much. When she turned around neck-deep in the water and wrung the clothing out, her sharp green eyes rested on Link, who was still watching her with his dazed blue ones. The towel was still around his waist, and he was kneeling on the edge of the bath, legs tucked under him. She thought it was just the same way she'd knelt while she's washed his hair and back. A blushing smiled touched her pink lips.

"Could you hang these up for me?" she asked gently, handing him the still damp mess of fabric.   
"Yeah," Link said, as he seemed to come out of a haze, blinking hard. As he took them and turned to hang them properly, Aurea sank completely under the water and scrubbed her hair out hard. After all, it wasn't so easy to be impassive around Link like this. It still felt as though her face was burning pleasantly when she broke the surface of the water. She took in several deep breaths, and then looked around. Link had paused and now stood stock still in the act of reaching for one of the fluffy towels.

"Oh thanks." Aurea said, suddenly feeling very exposed, and covering herself under the water, forgetting that it was now so opaque as to hide everything but the outline of her form. Link's brain apparently un-jammed itself and with a shake of he blonde head, he brought one of the towels over to her and held it up just as she had for him. When she'd wrapped the towel around herself, she briefly allowed herself to look up at him. It was a shock to see him looking straight back at her.

Some hours later, after their clothing had dried, after they'd re-dressed, after absolutely nothing had happened for the rest of the day, Link lay wide awake. His burning blue eyes stared blankly up at the ceiling. His left arm felt warm, probably because Aurea's arms were curled around it as if his limb were a teddy bear. He could feel her breasts against his upper arm as she breathed. Despite himself, the young Hylian glanced at his companion as she slept. At least he thought she was sleeping, it looked that way. Link's right hand seemed to come up all on it's own, and lightly trace the contours of her face. In a way, this feeling he was experiencing was the same sort of feeling one might have if they were stretching out their hand to touch a beautifully textured work of art, and then swiftly admonished for doing such a thing. In fact, he half-expected her to wake up and be furious with him. Instead, she just smiled a little and snoozed on, nuzzling her face into his shoulder. As Link's hand passed over Aurea's left shoulder, he paused, eyes narrowing on the pale scar marring her skin there. In less than a minute, he'd made up his mind, and felt sleep now tugging very insistently at his eyes. Tomorrow, he decided, he would teach her to fight, to fight like he did. And with that in mind, his brain finally wound down, and allowed him to rest.

Author's Notes: this chapter should, I think, be dedicated to all those who kept reviewing and asking for more, thought what I can accurately call the darkest point during my life... to date that is. In particular I would like to thank Fye Kurokawa, for offering to draw the character Aurea. If I can managed it, and with the artist's permission of course, I will post a link to said picture as soon as possible.

Thanks to all! And Keep reading, writing, and reviewing.

Best of luck go with you and all the Muses,

IvoryCoral


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